Bismarck

No one noticed that he was distracted. Everyone was thinking about what changes this "Suez Canal without a fight" would bring to their side...

"How about... reporting the situation first? See how the higher-ups arrange it?" Rommel also spoke with some hesitation: "I always feel that after the Suez Canal is occupied, the higher-ups will make major adjustments to us..."

"That will definitely happen, but as soldiers, I think we should report the situation first. As for how they will make the specific arrangements, we'll talk about it later..."

Field Marshal Kesselring glanced at Rommel, then looked at Lütjens who was silent beside him, shrugged his shoulders, and set the final tone for the matter.

Within two days, Hitler's reply arrived: summon Field Marshal Kesselring, General Lütjens and General Rommel back to the country, as there were important decisions to be made and a meeting had to be held!

"It seems like I might have to take everyone on a long journey..." After receiving the meeting notice, Lütjens muttered to himself inexplicably.

Although I could roughly guess my next mission, I still felt a sense of uneasiness in my heart...

Is it an illusion? still……

Chapter 550: I want shells!

Berlin, Chancellery, mustache man's office.

The office was crowded with people. On a large table in the middle were several large-scale maps and nautical charts. A mustache man, who was already wearing reading glasses, was leaning over the table, holding a telescope and constantly looking for geographical information on the map. With his slightly trembling hands, the standard image of a mustache man appeared. If he had a pencil in his hand at this time...

I'll beat you to death, you scum!

Next to the man with a mustache, Raeder was also standing at the table. He stretched out his hand to point out the locations of various important sea points on the map to the man with a mustache, while explaining something in his mouth while pointing at Jiangshan.

Around them, the obese second in command of the Reich, Goering, the seemingly gentle but actually extremely cunning Himmler, the Chief of the Supreme Command, Field Marshal Keitel, who appeared silent but could not hide his inner fanaticism, and the self-willed Chief of the General Staff, General Halder... also gathered around the map table, their eyes following Raeder's finger, and moving slowly on the map on this small piece of land, following the historical origins of Field Marshal Raeder, a doctor of philosophy, and his unique commentary.

Anyway, a bunch of big guys from the empire are here, and if there is a boom, the losses will be heavy.

Of course, among this group of people, there was also a soldier in his early fifties, wearing a navy general's uniform. His slightly tanned face showed signs of being weathered.

Lütjens stood silently aside, looking coldly at Redl, who was attracting everyone's attention with inflammatory words in the middle of the office crowd, and was clamoring his own ideas with seemingly orderly sentences:

"…Britain's shipping demand for the Indian Ocean and the Middle East is huge. According to data from 1940, the port throughput in the Middle East reached more than 550 million tons. With just this number, it is not difficult to imagine Britain's demand for resources along the Indian Ocean coast, and to infer the resource pressure that the British will face after the blockade of the Indian Ocean. And this pressure will most likely fall on the Americans... In order to ensure the possibility of future intervention in the European continent, the United States will have to allocate a huge amount of resources to support the British, which will inevitably delay the efficiency of their use of war potential..."

"...If we take the Cape Town route, the voyage from the UK or the US to the Middle East is as long as 10,000 or even 12,000 miles! This means that if they want to ship to the Middle East, they can only organize hundreds of large-scale transport teams. But the impact of such transport teams on their shipping and the pressure on their maritime force deployment can be imagined! Moreover, under the joint attack of our surface fleet and submarines, the shipping risk of such a large-scale escort team is also very huge... Now, our Japanese allies have already arrived at Singapore, and Southeast Asia seems to be within reach! And after we open the Suez Canal, we just need to go south along the Red Sea, break through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and then rush out of the Gulf of Aden, and we can hunt together with them in the Indian Ocean..."

"...And for all this, we only need Lütjens's fleet, plus the Prinz Eugen that is currently breaking into the Atlantic Ocean. These four ships together will be enough - using these four ships can make the Americans a burden for at least one or two years. This war is very cost-effective..."

The prospect was described as wonderful by the Marshal.

Following Raeder's explanation and instructions, the mustache man who was lying on the table reading the map, holding a telescope in his hand, smiled happily. He only knew the basics of the navy, and as an army idiot, he could only rely on professionals. But Goering and Keitel, who were standing next to him, listened to this, and then looked at Lütjens who was silent and just looking at the map, and inexplicably felt a little bit of a heart attack...

Everyone knows how bad the relationship between Redl and Lütjens is, but... he was able to use such high-sounding words to make the excuse of "kicking out political enemies" so reasonable and logical...

This guy Redel is really shameless.

But apart from this, there seems to be no better way...

Over there, the man with the mustache looked very satisfied. He certainly knew that there was something fishy going on in Raeder's mind, and he also understood the exclusion of Lütjens. But from the perspective of the Führer, this was indeed a feasible plan. After all, no matter what, the man with the mustache was still quite confident in the four battleships. In his heart, his Bismarck was an unsinkable battleship.

So he spoke out:

"This plan is good. We can contain the British and American maritime power as much as possible at the lowest cost. In addition, as you said, we have two Hindenburg-class and two Scharnhorst-class ships near the Arctic Ocean, which are enough to guard Northern Europe and threaten the most important shipping lines of Britain and the United States to Russia! This way, our grand strategy will be more certain!"

"The Arctic Fleet already has more than just these troops, my Führer." Hearing that the mustache man agreed with his opinion, Raeder's old face smiled like a flower, but he did a good job of suppressing his excitement and continued to say to Hitler: "Please allow me to report a good news to you in advance: According to your instructions and the arrangements of the Imperial Parliament, our plan to convert two Europa-class super cruise ships into aircraft carriers - that is, the conversion project of the Europa and Bremen - is now nearing completion! At the beginning of next year at the latest, we will be able to add two more aircraft carriers! I believe that with their service, our seas will be even more impregnable..."

"Oh? Really? That's good news!" Hitler laughed happily when he heard the news. But as if he had thought of something, he turned his head and looked at a "slightly fat angel" standing aside: "Goering, have you equipped the planes for these two aircraft carriers?"

"It's ready, Führer. The Naval Aviation Academy has added Zeppelins, and now the pilots are assigned to Europa and Bremen." Hearing the question from the mustache, Goering immediately stood up and reported to the mustache: "... In the middle of last year, I asked Admiral Udet to organize the naval aviation force. Although we still don't have enough aircraft, we have been trying our best to meet the needs of the navy... As for the carrier-based aircraft units of these two aircraft carriers, we are also ready."

"…The investigation found that the 87 aircraft capacity claimed by the two aircraft carriers actually did not take into account the number of folded wings and deck moorings. If the wings were folded and the aircraft were moored on the deck and ready to be released at any time, the number of aircraft could be increased a lot…So we prepared a total of 109 JU-2Cs, 190 ​​BF-Ts, ​​FW-Ts and reconnaissance aircraft. The two aircraft carriers each carried aircraft, and pilots with rich combat experience were transferred from the Zeppelin aircraft carrier to train pilots…These aircraft have now been configured, and the pilots have basically completed their training and can serve on board at any time…"

Goering, who was kind-hearted and fat, reported to Hitler the preparations of the naval aviation and carrier-based aircraft units in a normal manner, as if he had forgotten Raeder's previous actions on the relationship between the navy and the air force. Although looking at Raeder's shameless appearance and thinking about his previous attitude towards the naval aviation, Goering still felt a little itchy inexplicably...

Damn it, I'll find a chance to trick him.

"Yes, I have visited those planes and pilots, and His Excellency the Imperial Marshal has worked very hard." Raeder also smiled and politely addressed Goering. However, at a certain time when no one noticed, a smug and contemptuous look flashed in his eyes, and a complicated meaning was sent directly to Lütjens who stood silently at the side.

Although Lütjens stood at the edge of the crowd and didn't say anything, everyone in the meeting hall was watching silently. The captain also saw the look from Raeder.

Looking at the eye contact from Raeder, the captain was speechless:

"…This old guy is really boring…"

---------Outside the door of the conference room----------

Because it was a top-secret meeting, Bismarck's secretary was not allowed to enter the meeting room. He could only sit outside the door with other people's secretaries and wait for the meeting to end.

However, the Persian cat obviously found that there was no one beside him, as if he was being excluded...

Looking at the army and air force sitting together according to their military branches, and then at the modified version of the navy uniform on himself, and then looking at the other secretaries brought by Raeder and other senior naval officials who came to the meeting, all sitting far away and looking at him with eyes that were either drooling or keeping a distance, Bismarck, who was sitting alone on the side, couldn't help but feel angry and amused in his heart.

I am a beautiful woman after all...

Well, they didn't dare to take action anyway. Whoever dared to take action would be crippled by Bismarck's three legs first.

She had no place to talk to anyone, so she could only look inside the conference hall. The closed conference hall was only useful to humans, but it was one-way transparent to her.

Everything that happened in the meeting room was basically visible to the cat's MAX perception ability. In addition to seeing the iconic shaking of the mustache, Bismarck could also "see" the scene in the meeting room where Raeder was looking at his captain with disdain...

"This old bastard!"

The Persian cat muttered something in its throat and clenched its paws indignantly.

There was still a quarrel in the conference room. As expected, after Raeder had explained the naval strategy, he wanted the captain to take himself, Grape, Zeppelin - and even Eugen - to the Indian Ocean to "stand aside".

I have never seen such a marshal. Generally speaking, they should win over Lütjens. But because his captain concealed the matter, Raeder thought that he wanted to get out of the control of the navy, so he started to exclude him. The originally good relationship became like this. Bismarck is not bragging. If the four ships really left, what ships would Germany have left that could fight...

Well, just stand aside...it'll be nice to have some peace and quiet!

However, since we are asked to "fight independently", you can't withhold our supplies as before! Bismarck thought that he couldn't be cheated again. Fighting on an empty stomach would drive people crazy.

In front of the Führer in the conference room, the captain and Raeder had already started arguing about the supply issue!

As a general, he has no say in the overall situation. However, Lütjens can no longer remain silent on such tactical and logistical issues, otherwise he will be the one who suffers, and a big loss at that. If his ships are without shells and oil, they will really be going to die.

So he ignored the presence of Little Mustache and, more likely, he spoke for Little Mustache to hear and directly confronted Redel.

After all, he is a soldier, and Lütjens has a strong aura.

There was no swearing, no loud arguments, but the atmosphere was extremely tense. Everyone was watching the debate between Redl and Lütjens, and of course many people still gloated over their misfortune.

"If you go to the Indian Ocean, of the 8,000 rounds of ammunition I promised you last time, including the ammunition gap you have filled now, there are still 3,500 rounds left of the 8,000 rounds - I will give you another 2,500 rounds to make up the three base numbers, and you can go to the Indian Ocean with three base numbers of ammunition..."

Redel shamelessly began to count on his fingers and bargain like a vegetable vendor calculating every penny.

"Your Excellency, you can't do this..." Lütjens raised his eyebrows. "There is no short-term pressure in the Indian Ocean, but as you said, the Indian Ocean is very important to Britain, so in the long run they will definitely fight for it desperately. It is not ruled out that we have to support Japan in the war, so three base shells are far from enough!"

The captain looked stern and refused to give an inch.

"But the reserves of 380mm shells still need to be supplied to the Arctic Fleet..."

"But I also know that our reserves of 380mm main gun shells are far more than this! Our country needs 380mm shells except for the Bismarck and the modified Schaan and Gnay. Even the shells for those coastal guns are specially made 520kg bottom-discharge extended-range shells, not 800kg ship-type shells! Besides, not counting the ones produced on the production line, the 380mm ship-type shells in reserve alone are at least rounds. You didn't tell us how long we would be in the Indian Ocean. If we stay there for a long time and the war changes, the ship will carry one base and the reserve will be two bases. This amount of shells is not enough!"

"The route from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean is open, and we can arrange for emergency transportation!"

Raeder painted a big picture for Lütjens.

I would never trust you, the Persian cat complained, what you get is yours.

"How can we rely on emergency transport in a battlefield that changes so quickly? If you don't believe me... you can look at the map. The Red Sea is two thousand kilometers long. A transport ship traveling at twelve knots will take ninety hours to sail through the Red Sea alone - and that doesn't even include the one thousand nautical miles of the Mediterranean and at least one thousand five hundred nautical miles of the Gulf of Aden-Indian Ocean! Do we really need to 'immediately rush transport'? I'm afraid all four of my ships will sink to the bottom of the sea!"

"...Also, everyone should note that the average width of the Red Sea is less than 200 kilometers. The width of the Sinai Peninsula in the north and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the south is only 30 to 40 kilometers! There are also sandstorms in the Red Sea in summer... The Gulf of Aqaba, which enters the Strait of Tiran along the Sinai Peninsula in the north, is a port occupied by the British, and the area of ​​Saudi Arabia in the south is also relatively pro-British and American. As long as they lurk a few torpedo boats in the small ports along the coast, the transport fleet will be in trouble!"

"Can a small torpedo boat pose such a big threat?" asked a senior Nazi official who knew nothing about the navy, as he listened to Lütjens emphasize the threat posed by torpedo boats to transportation lines.

"Although the torpedo boats are small, they are indeed very powerful in the straits and near the coast! Aren't our own torpedo boats called E-boats by the British in the English Channel? Come to think of it, there are reports about this in the newspapers, right?" Lütjens said to the official with certainty. Then he looked at Raeder. Beside Raeder, Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany, who was wearing a yellow uniform, thought about it and nodded:

"Well, there are quite a few reports from Britain and the United States about our torpedo boats."

Redl was speechless.

However, he secretly stared at Lütjens from below, and then began to find a new excuse: "More shells require more transportation capacity and ships! Six thousand 380 shells with propellant weigh 7000 tons. Even if one-third of the shells are loaded on the ship, the remaining shells will require at least one large transport ship! You have to consider the transportation capacity..."

"As for transport capacity, we can requisition merchant ships in Greece and British ports in North Africa. Many of those ships are damaged, but many can be repaired in a short time! As for the operators, I can transfer a group of sailors from the battleships to operate the transport ships, right?"

“但是你这还只是380，还有150、105、50、37、还有欧根秦霏的203……”

------

There was a heated debate in the conference room, and the Persian cat outside the venue was counting on his fingers, counting the amount of ammunition for himself and Tizi.

If I remember correctly... after Barbarossa, until "the Mediterranean Sea was opened", Raeder promised to allocate 380 rounds of main gun shells to them, but so far, they have only received more than rounds...

More than four thousand artillery shells may seem like a lot, but in fact, they are just a little more ammunition for the two of them plus grapes, okay?

One base number of shells is enough for one naval battle or one month! The same base number of ammunition for me and Tizi is 960 shells!

Thinking about the past few months, the Persian cat felt depressed!

With such a cheating boss, Persian Cat turned from a money-eating beast into a thrifty housewife. She had to measure every penny before firing. There was no other way. If she didn't live frugally, she wouldn't know where to cry when the supply was cut off. She would have no idea where to go if she had to eat one meal and no idea where to eat the next. Just imagine if there was any battleship as miserable as her.

It's a capital "miserable".

Do you have!

With these pitiful shells, he and Tizi fought the Battle of Crete, and then fought Zawiyat-Zanzur. Then, they used the remaining ammunition to desperately cover Rommel's charge into Alexandria. Finally, after another month, after several rounds of bombardment, they landed at Montazah and completely captured the port of Alexandria...

And what is Redel doing? Is he bullying Eugen and falsely accusing Top?

The Persian cat was a little indignant!

But soon, her thoughts wandered...

As early as when they received the notice to return home, the entire Mediterranean Fleet had a premonition that they might be "away for a long time", and the corresponding personnel and work adjustments had been arranged long ago - Heyer had already decided to leave the Mediterranean Fleet Command and serve as a maritime operations and shipping liaison officer at the Italian Navy Headquarters; and taking advantage of the last few days, Bonte, who wanted to go home and settle his family, and Zeppelin, who had to go to the Air Force Ministry to be in charge of liaison, followed him and the captain back to Berlin;

As for the one who was left at last, it was his sister's captain, the heartless Lindemann who thought that if he was well fed, the whole family would not be hungry. Now he was the person in charge of the Mediterranean Fleet. He dragged his equally heartless homegirl Grape to Port Said to "inspect" the canal channel clearing and minesweeping.

However, thinking about Bangtai going home to settle down his family...

I don’t know how long it will take me to come back and see Lily if I go out... Come to think of it, I don’t know how she is doing now!

Although I asked last time, Lily's research institute is in Berlin, called the Royal Wilhelm Institute of Physics. But it is a confidential unit after all. Even though Lily is the daughter of a navy admiral, she cannot come and go without a special reason and approval process. So last time the British bombed Berlin and destroyed her home, she couldn't go back to take a look...

Speaking of which, Lily is also a poor child.

The captain must miss her too, right? And this time he's out, and he doesn't know when he'll be back... Bismarck thought, should we think of a way to get the captain and Lily together... At least let them have some time to talk or something...

As she was thinking, Bismarck had already switched directly to stepmother mode. However, this stepmother was pretty good. She and her daughter had become sisters... It was really embarrassing.

Bismarck was also a daughter, and she knew very well that in her father's eyes, her daughter was the most important little cotton-padded jacket...

Because of my own affairs, Lily almost quarreled with the captain and fell out with him... However, they were father and daughter after all, so when I and the captain came back from a narrow escape, our relationship was reconciled. It was after that incident that we really hadn't seen each other for a long time...

But if I want them to meet and have a good chat, what time should I find?

The Captain was too busy to go out of his way to do this, so she had to arrange it.

Just when the Persian cat was completely lost in thought, the captain came out...

A big hand gently patted Bismarck's head. The frightened Persian cat immediately stood up and almost jumped three feet high. It was with great difficulty that she calmed down.

I thought some pervert was really bold enough to touch me.

“…Captain, you scare me!”

The first thing she did after calming down was to blame the captain. She puffed her cheeks in anger, which made Lütjens look very confused and puzzled, and then he finally coaxed her down.

"…Really? You just know how to scare me…By the way, Captain, is the meeting over?"

"No, only my topic has been discussed." Lütjens shook his head.

The headquarters is very busy, and even a meeting has to be divided into many topics for separate discussions. In order to maintain confidentiality and distinguish tasks, the topics are generally arranged in order of meeting, and only when the topic is relevant will the personnel related to the topic be called in to report and participate in the discussion. The topic just now: the discussion of matters related to the Indian Ocean operation should be the only topic that the captain needs to participate in this meeting.

"...By the way, Captain, will Raeder still only give us 6,000 shells?" Speaking of the meeting just now, Bismarck always felt that he had a lot of complaints but couldn't find a place to vent them!

"It's not so bad. The Fuehrer intervened. Finally, Raeder had to agree to give us one more base of shells. In addition to the 380 shells, there are four bases of 203 shells, four bases of 150 shells, and six bases of anti-aircraft ammunition... These ammunition will be shipped to Italy in the next few days - we have to keep an eye on them when the time comes, to make sure they don't run out of shells!"

"Yes, then we'll have Lindman plunder a few more ships over there and bring them back to serve as supply ships for us. Oh, and one more thing! Captain, what about our fuel?"

"We can get some of the quota we sent to our Italian allies, and Marshal Goering has also promised to give us more aviation gasoline. As for the rest... we'll see if we can rob some of it back by breaking into the Middle East..."

"Ah... we still have to be a pirate ship..." The Persian cat's ears drooped a little, but he quickly remembered: "... That's right! Captain, how about we find a time these few days and ask Lily to get together?"

"Eh?!" Lütjens was stunned by the sudden turn of events. Seeing the captain's sudden confusion, Bismarck gently covered his mouth and wanted to laugh in his heart. Sure enough, the captain had never thought about this, so his decision was correct.

The Evil Spirit Battleship That Fears Ghosts

Although Lütjens' house was destroyed in the air raid, this was not a problem at all. No matter how poor the empire was, it would not allow an admiral to wander the streets. It would be so embarrassing to make it public.

When they came back this time, Bismarck, the captain and Zeppelin moved into a new house again.

After all, there are so many powerful people in the capital that they can find all kinds of ways. After the Allied bombing, the German government quickly acquired several more residential areas to house senior generals and political dignitaries whose homes were bombed.