Bismarck

After all, there are still many ships in the current Eastern Expeditionary Fleet, and things like the environment are not a problem that should be considered now.

The Eastern Expeditionary Fleet consisted of not only the Bismarck, Tirpitz, Zeppelin, and the Prinz Eugen which had not yet arrived, but also a number of supply ships loaded with ammunition, fuel, food, medicine, and various other supplies, as well as the submarine forces that had previously fought in the Mediterranean.

If all of them are in place, it will be a fleet of considerable size.

Especially the fact that submarines could come here was really beyond Bismarck's expectations.

In this way, they are now able to fight in three dimensions, with submarines under the sea, warships on the sea, and planes in the sky.

Since Britain no longer has a main fleet in the Mediterranean and only has one base in Malta, which is still fighting but no longer poses much of a threat to the Axis powers, there is nothing for German submarines to do if they continue to stay in the Mediterranean.

But if the submarine wants to leave, it is not easy!

Because the water depth of the Strait of Gibraltar is more than 250 meters, and the hydrological conditions are against the wind and the current. If a submarine wants to go out, it can only go out of the Mediterranean Sea at full speed. But if any submarine really dares to do this, the sonars of the destroyers of the Gibraltar garrison fleet will be eagerly waiting for the German submarine to deliver the goods to their doorsteps, so that they can start business...

Therefore, the only way for these submarine forces to leave the Mediterranean was to go to the Indian Ocean, and Dönitz simply went with the flow and assigned these submarines to Lütjens' command. In addition to the 18 submarines in the three submarine squadrons in the Mediterranean, there were also five or six ocean-going submarines operating independently in the Indian Ocean, which also sent telegrams to Lütjens. And the scale of these twenty-odd submarines was not small at all! So a dock was needed to arrange the docking of these submarines!

In fact, there was no other way, otherwise why would Dönitz give so many ships to a "rebellious" army.

In addition, the sailors of so many warships are not a small number! You know, the sailors and pilots of Bismarck, Tirpitz and Zeppelin alone amount to nearly 10,000 people, and the officers, soldiers, marines and other staff of other ships - including a group of infrastructure engineers who built dock facilities, roads, warehouses and airports here, as well as a fighter squadron scheduled to be stationed here from the North African battlefield and a twin-engine fighter squadron that is responsible for both reconnaissance and bombing. Pilots, ground crews and anti-aircraft artillery - there are even more people!

Not to mention, with a force of 15,000 to 16,000 people, just eating, drinking, defecating and urinating is a problem! Socotra Island is a barren island with almost no rainfall. Apart from spices that can be used as export materials but are worthless in wartime, the output here alone cannot support more than 10,000 soldiers! Not to mention, in addition to the livestock that are regarded as all property and source of livelihood by local herdsmen and the dates that are regarded as the staple food by the locals, which are quite unsuitable for the taste of German soldiers, on this island with extremely scarce fresh water resources, more than 16,000 officers and soldiers even have to rely on transport ships to transport drinking water...

And that's not all! Although the British, under Auchinleck's command, almost gave up these areas and withdrew all their naval and air forces in the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf and the South Asian subcontinent to defend on the spot. But... because of this, the British naval and air forces in the Indian Ocean now actually have enough troops to fight harassment wars with Germany and Japan everywhere.

Ceylon, occupied by Japan, was right under India's nose, and all kinds of air raids and harassment were imaginable! Although Socotra Island was farther from the Middle East, it was not safe before building sufficient self-defense infrastructure in the face of the British submarine combat radius and bomber range.

Before the troops move, the food and fodder must go first! But the infrastructure here is very poor.

In addition to the projects of piling and laying mine and frogman barrier nets in this bay, there are really a lot of infrastructure projects to be built or renovated: oil depots, water storage facilities, temporary docks along the coast of Hadibu Town, a field airport ten kilometers west of the town, and the dredging of the coastal road from Hadibu Town to the airport that was blown up beyond recognition by the British, as well as fortifications and obstacles that need to be built to prevent the British army from defending these extremely vulnerable targets, not to mention that in order to ensure early warning, it is necessary to overcome the steep barrier of Mount Hajshir at an altitude of 1200 meters as much as possible, and build radar stations with as few blind spots as possible to provide early warning - no one can guarantee when the British attack will come! Now the defense of the port is taken care of by Zeppelin and himself in turn.

In wartime, everything is so time-sensitive! In Bismarck's eyes, the captain is now worried about these things.

For these projects, the captain would supervise the construction on the site day and night whenever he was free, transforming himself from a fleet commander to a construction engineer. After inspecting the construction site during the day, he would hold meetings and organize and dispatch the limited manpower and resources in the fleet at night to ensure that all projects could be put into use as soon as possible.

Many of the sailors on the three large warships have now been recruited into the engineering team to work in shifts. And now even a 50,000-ton hamster that was originally lazy and greedy has been sent up!

At the side of the reserve dock, the battleship Tirpitz was using the crane beside her chimney, which was originally used to lift seaplanes and transport boats, to help the engineering team lift cages filled with stones for filling the dock. Speaking of which, the reason why this hamster is so diligent is actually because it was forced by a ship cat sister who loves her master. Now the irritated little grape is on top of its main body, wearing a safety helmet and driving a crane for "civilized construction", while looking at the deflated snack bag, it can only yawn and complain...

As the fleet commander, he has to worry about all matters in the garrison, big and small! Infrastructure construction and logistics issues are the foundation of the entire base, and the captain cannot ignore them!

Since the fleet arrived at Socotra Island, the captain had become very haggard in just a few days! Even Bismarck beside him felt distressed for a long time just by looking at the captain's wholehearted dedication to his work...

-----

"Captain, please take a rest..."

I don't know how many times, every time I saw the captain could only lean on the backrest to rest a little while on the way, Bismarck would hand over the kettle, gently pull the captain's clothes, and persuade him to rest for a while. But every time the captain took the kettle and took a sip of water, while forcing himself to open his eyes with bloodshot and dark circles, and gently said to Bismarck: "Thank you, but there are still many things to do...", and then continued to lean on the backrest, rubbing his temples tiredly...

Just looking at Bismarck makes me feel heartbroken...

Just like that, working day and night, a week passed and the garrison finally took shape.

Anti-aircraft gun positions, temporary warehouses, temporary barracks and so on have been built, and even the airport and dock have been cleared out. After all, the British originally built an airport here, and the airport of this era only needs a slightly solid flat land, so the engineers only need to fill the holes blown up by the British and then lay steel plates, and they can basically use it. Even the only trouble, the radar station that is difficult to set up due to the high mountains and steep hills of the island, has been disassembled into various parts by the sailors and engineers, except for the generator that cannot be disassembled and placed in the cave at the foot of the mountain. The radar chassis and antenna have been disassembled into various parts. It took a full half month to carry the disassembled radar to the top of the mountain by shouldering and carrying it on the back, and then reassembled it into a radar station! Along with the radar station, there are also several 37mm anti-aircraft guns that were also disassembled and moved up.

Although this radar station is only on a small hillside about thirty kilometers west of Hadibu, and can only cover part of the sea area, but... with this radar station, plus a radar station west of the airport, at least the search range for the most dangerous east and north is guaranteed.

In half a month, the base of the Indian Ocean Expeditionary Fleet, the Socotra Island Garrison, has finally taken shape in terms of infrastructure and security protection.

"Huh... Although it's not perfect yet, I can at least sleep peacefully."

In the captain's room of the Bismarck, Lütjens, who could finally relax, sat on the edge of the bed with a tired look on his face, stroking the hair of his own ship cat.

After hearing this, a certain ship cat just rolled his eyes at his own captain who was already looking haggard: "... So, Captain, you should also have a good sleep! If anything happens, Zeppelin, Grape and I will be on duty here..."

Seeing the look in his Bismarck's eyes, Lütjens was very tired, but he still smiled at his secretary ship, and pinched the cat's ears while smiling: "... I know you care about me, but there are still many things to do."

Lütjens thought for a moment and said, "Raeder is already urging us to go to Ceylon to meet the Japanese... But at the very least, I have to get my family in order before I can do anything..."

If this base is not built well, he really will be worried. The place is far away from the country. Africa is far enough, but now it is several times farther. There is no need to fight a logistical battle. Although the Japanese may have some supplies, Lütjens will not want to rely on the Japanese.

However, before he could finish, Bismarck covered his mouth, as if he would not give up until he went to sleep.

"Okay, okay, stop looking at me like that...I want to rest, isn't it okay for me to rest?" He smiled helplessly.

"Humph!"

Seeing the captain, who was originally meticulous but now had a thick face and made excuses for not taking a good rest, Bismarck, who was a little bit irritated because of his concern for the captain, turned his head and stopped pinching the captain's ears. He even snorted softly in protest.

But...I remember what the captain said just now? First fix "our home", then...?

Well, since you said "our home", let's forget it this time~

Bismarck was delighted and let him go.

Although I have some inexplicable thoughts in my heart, I still have to protest! Captain, you are really too tired these days!

"Captain, you really should take a rest. If you want to meet with the Japanese, let's talk about it tomorrow!"

“…You’ve been so tired these days. If you don’t have a good rest, I won’t agree!” Bismarck raised his claws and demonstrated to his captain.

"Okay, okay, I'll rest, I'll rest, isn't it okay to rest..." Seeing Bismarck protesting, the captain didn't know whether to laugh or cry. However, seeing Bismarck's protesting eyes, he had no choice but to lie down completely.

Then the captain's eyelids started to droop...

Seeing the captain snoring, Bismarck felt a little sweet in his heart. Inadvertently, Bismarck tilted his head slightly, and put his ears and hair into the palm of the captain who was already tired and fell asleep.

After all, this home was built with hard work by myself, the captain, and everyone else.

As for what's the big deal...

who cares!

Chapter 578: me King Kong de~su

A group of blue-gray painted warships flying the Rising Sun flag are docked in the port of Trincomalee in Ceylon, silently showing off their might to the island that has just been ravaged by war and chaos.

But the irony is that these soldiers with blood on their hands are now solemnly lined up in neat rows according to their military rank, following the guidance of the priests in white robes and tall hats, and worshiping a small shrine on the warship with a serious look on their faces - needless to say, these people are most likely begging for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere of the locust army of the Empire of Japan to be able to extend their military fortunes for a long time.

Shintoism has become popular in Japan since the Meiji Restoration. Even on every warship, there are talismans from the Ise Shrine in memory of Amaterasu and shrines related to the names of warships, called "betsu-ma", placed in shrines carved into the shape of mini shrines, accepting the offerings and sacrifices of the Japanese officers and soldiers who do evil things during the day.

January 1942, 1 was the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, the day for the shrine to hold a sacrificial ceremony. Although there was only a small shrine on the ship, according to the rules of Shintoism, the overall layout, religious significance and sacrificial rules of the shrine and the shrine were basically the same - in short, the shrine in Shintoism is a smaller version of the shrine. From the torii and the tamaguchi (the fence around the shrine) that separate the divine world from the human world, to the pillars and ropes hanging around the shrine and on the gate, to the stone lantern models on both sides for lighting and exorcism, and even the offering box under the shrine, and the long-handled ladle next to the shrine for washing hands and rinsing mouths before the sacrifice, which served as the faucet of the hand water room... they were all exactly the same as in the shrine.

In the shrine onboard this Japanese battleship, there is a talisman that is worshipped, and it has the seal and inscription of the Kenmizu Shrine in Osaka Prefecture printed on it.

The sacrifices in Japanese shrines are relatively simple, and although the activities of the Gunkan Jinja Shrine are deliberately solemn, because it is now in a wartime military port, everything needs to be simple, so it is even simpler, even the fixed sacrificial activities on the 15th day of the lunar calendar are the same. Basically, after the priests dance and worship, the captain pays the offerings to the "god" enshrined in the shrine on behalf of all the officers and soldiers on the ship, and then rings the bell hanging in front of the shrine. All the officers and soldiers participating in the sacrifice bow twice and pray, clap twice, and then bow once according to the ancient Japanese etiquette, and the sacrifice is basically over.

As the soldiers gradually left, the shrine slowly returned to silence. When the prayers were just over, no one would come to pray, so even the priests left temporarily.

However, after the "quiet" is basically over...

"Ah... I'm so bored. I really want to have afternoon tea..."

Following a voice full of energy, something like green smoke floated out of the shrine and immediately turned into a figure with brown hair tied up on both sides of her head, wearing a white upper body dress similar to that of a shrine maiden, but with a short skirt, and she looked around.

"Hehe, it looks like no one is here... If you want to have afternoon tea, this is Ceylon. When I was in the UK, I knew that a lot of British black tea was sourced from here... Well, never mind! Anyway, the offerings they made just now were all for me, right? Then I won't be polite!... Here's the small change, sister, I'm here to see you guys!..."

Then a figure dressed in a shrine maiden costume rushed in and dove into the donation box to pick up the money, accompanied by her complaints...

"…The donation just now… um, 500 yen, I wonder how much tea I can buy here… But… Why do I always feel that I am poor de~su… Well, since I am being offered donations, I will set some rules next time!… um, next time I will put up a piece of paper. I will clearly mark the prices, and I will not cheat anyone de~su!… It's settled! One dollar will get you a broom to chase you away, ten dollars will get you a smile to welcome you, one hundred dollars will get you tea to entertain you, and one thousand dollars will get you a big banquet… Wait! What weird things did you just say de~su!!"

The brown-haired girl shook her head vigorously, then lowered her head to look at the witch costume on her body...

“…something is wrong. Why do I suddenly feel weird, as if something strange has possessed me? I suddenly feel as if my moral integrity is falling to the ground for no apparent reason – how is this possible! I am a worshiped being de~su!…But now, should I say that the evil spirits should retreat? Or should I say that my moral integrity has returned…Pah pah pah, why do I always feel that I am getting weirder and weirder de~su…Forget it, I don’t want to think about it anymore! Anyway, I have the money, I can go out and buy some tea de~su…”

She shook her head gently, forgetting all about moral integrity. She looked around to see that no one else was paying attention to her. The figure holding the yen blinked, grinned, snapped her fingers, and then quickly disappeared completely - along with the 500 yen in her hand!

Then, about ten minutes later, a roar in Japanese was heard from the room where the shrine was placed on the Kongo battlecruiser...

"Damn it! Who is this bastard? He even stole the money that the captain personally paid to the gods of the ship's shrine!"

It’s none of my business.

-----

The streets of Trincomalee are in chaos!

Although there is a newly painted "The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", the traces of the large-scale massacre twenty days ago are still vivid. After all, the method of whitewashing with lime water is far from enough to cover up the smell of blood.

How can such a deep blood feud be covered up by just a slogan?

In the eyes of the locals who dared not speak out, whether it was the army horse dung wearing yellow leather, carrying a rifle, with a sunshade behind the hat, or the navy red deer wearing a navy uniform and a work hat, they all became local tyrants here. Although these soldiers had to abide by military regulations when on duty, and had to endure the suppression of officers and veterans. But when they were off duty, they would grab a bottle of wine and "relax" everywhere without restraint. Coupled with the already beastly military discipline and the military prostitutes who were forcibly captured from the comfort station, the originally peaceful island of Ceylon was turned into a mess!

Even King Kong, who had disguised himself a little and used clothes to make his brown hair look less conspicuous, still felt lustful eyes when he went out, and people shamelessly looked at him, making King Kong feel uncomfortable all over - and this is still easy to say. If it was not easy to say, the soldiers could have directly arrested comfort women or something.

After turning a corner, King Kong, who had instantly become a virtual being, held a large bag of black tea leaves and watched in silence as a group of ferocious arresting team members ran over and went deeper into the alley. Soon, these beasts in military uniforms were making a lot of noise inside, and from time to time, there were noises like "Tell me! Where is that beautiful girl just now!"

"Ah... I can run into these people even when I'm buying tea. Really... Why is our country's army full of scum like this..."

The speechless King Kong shook his head in disgust and sighed. Without canceling his virtual state, he just floated towards his original body in the harbor.

By the way, even though she speaks pidgin English and looks silly and crazy, she is not stupid...

After all, he was the fifth flagship of the Japanese Imperial Navy Combined Fleet. How could he be really stupid?

However, halfway through...

"Hmm... there seems to be something over there de~su?"

King Kong stopped in confusion and turned to observe the sea area in the south. In her perception, two battleships with a dark gray base, triangular camouflage paint, and a huge bridge, and an aircraft carrier with the same paint style, which seemed to have a wider flight deck than the British, American and Japanese aircraft carriers she had seen, were heading straight towards Trincomalee under the guidance of a Japanese destroyer!

Moreover, as a battleship, Kong could even feel a palpitation from these three unfamiliar large battleships - if it was just the powerful performance, it would not give Kong this feeling, but... from these two battleships and an aircraft carrier, Kong, who is also a large battleship, could vaguely feel a kind of long-time military experience and a murderous aura of battle-hardened! And the most important thing is that Kong could also feel that there seemed to be three people like himself on the three German battleships over there...

Is it the same existence as myself?

I was a little surprised, but it also seemed natural. How could such a powerful force exist without such an existence?

"…Huh, this is what the officers have been talking about these days. With the power of three warships, they crippled half of the Royal Navy's Lütjens Fleet… It really is quite impressive de~su!"

However, deep down, King Kong didn't really like meeting the three ship girls over there.

Besides the fact that she was born in Britain and therefore had some feelings towards Britain, she was still unwilling to accept the fact that the British warships were destroyed by the Germans. After all, she was a returned Chinese, so she always had a somewhat bad impression of Germany.

So she has actually been hiding her identity all along, staying quietly in the small shrine on her body.

----

Although Japan has experienced the Meiji Restoration, its feudal traditions are still very strong. Even the earliest capital of this country, in addition to being willing to serve as a pawn for Britain and the United States to deal with the land powers on the Eurasian continent, in exchange for technical assistance and loans from Britain and the United States, the real economic foundation was actually obtained by exploiting women!

There is a joke that after the Japanese army occupied Southeast Asia in 1941, they found that Japanese geishas had occupied Southeast Asia years earlier than them! And the female workers in a large number of sweatshops in Japan are also the group that has suffered the most in Japan's development over the past few decades, without a doubt.

But the Kongo battleship was born in the UK...

From the time she was launched into water in late 1912 to now, she has been in service for thirty years at least. During these thirty years, she has seen all kinds of life!

In fact, since the day it was built, Kongo has always been dreaming that when he returns to Japan, he will have a heroic admiral who can lead him to fight vigorously for the benefit of the country, or to pursue his love passionately.

But after returning to China, when he saw a country that had developed by exploiting women and even retained feudal traditions, as well as the stupid and tyrannical habits in the army, King Kong's heart was immediately poured with a large basin of cold water, and all his enthusiasm and goodwill were gone...

Moreover, this country is truly full of surprises. It is a modern country with feudalism as its hind legs. It is militarily strong, but the people in this country rarely receive the treatment of modern countries, and are more often just crazy.

When she arrived in Japan, it coincided with the era of the "brain-dead child" Emperor Taisho. The result of the development of the chaebol power, apart from the farce of "Taisho Democracy" that was blown up by a lot of people, was actually the cruel exploitation of female workers and geishas. To be honest, politicians may be brain-dead or warlords may be tyrannical, but the exploitation of female workers and geishas, ​​especially the military, openly opened comfort stations in the troops and docks. The first time she appeared and wandered around the naval port, she was almost caught by the gendarmerie as a "prostitute who didn't know the rules" and "taken back" to the comfort station!

There are many soldiers who break the law all over the world, and there are also many different kinds of gendarmerie, but she only saw it on that day that there were gendarmerie that could openly help illegal soldiers and do all kinds of evil everywhere.

Then as time went by, the more she looked at it, the colder she felt... In such a hodgepodge of a place, she knew everything in just a few days!

After all, she was a returnee from Britain. No matter what happened at the beginning, she never thought that in this country, not only would the men in the family go to the army, but the women in the family would be "recruited" by the army to work in comfort stations. There were also a lot of people who shouted "loyalty to the emperor" as if it was a matter of course all day long, and dreamed of becoming a great empire and dominating the world - even though the family could no longer afford even rice.

From that moment on, she became completely disheartened...

After 30 years of service, she has seen too much, and many things have made her completely helpless. Now she no longer has the girlish mood of "Admiral BurningLovvvvve~!" and "Burning LoveFire!" when she was young. She just stays in her own small shrine on the ship every day, quietly brewing her own tea, and living a carefree life like a shrine maiden...

After being treated like this, King Kong, who was originally lively, felt that it didn't matter when the battle would end.

-----

Now, in her heart, apart from the fact that she would fight hard for her country when her country was at war with the enemy, she no longer wanted to care about other things, especially the farces of sailors, officers, and high-level politicians, which made her irritated...

And the German fleet she saw now was also among the things she didn't want to care about.

"Well... never mind. They're already here, and it's not my business anyway... I just hope those German guys won't be too annoying..."

Looking at the direction of the German fleet in the distance, he knew that they were coming to contact and visit his fleet, as well as to transfer technical data. As a warship in the fleet, King Kong could only be helpless and casual. He hooked his fingers on the bag full of tea, shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands, blinked his right eye, turned half a circle, and floated towards his small shrine...

And twenty miles away on the sea, the Persian cat that was looking at Ceylon Island curiously was suddenly stunned...

"Bismarck, what's wrong? Have you found any problems?" Lütjens, who had been watching his own battleship, saw his ship cat suddenly stunned. Knowing how sensitive a Persian cat's perception was, the captain couldn't help but frowned like a conditioned reflex - after all, Bismarck usually behaved like this when it found any problems - and every time his ship cat reacted like this, it would be an extremely difficult battle.

If he hadn't thought that this was the place of Germany's "ally" and could guarantee safety, Lütjens would have almost shouted out the order for the entire fleet to be on first-level combat readiness. However, in the spirit of being on guard against others, Lütjens still had a shudder in his heart and began to enter the combat command state.

"Uh... Hey? Captain, I'm fine." Bismarck heard his captain's question and saw that the captain seemed ready to fight at any time. He shook his head and waved his hands, indicating that there was no danger. After seeing the captain relax a little, Bismarck reported with mixed feelings: "Tizi, Zeppelin and I just sensed that there seems to be a ship girl in Japan, but she doesn't seem to be very willing to see us..."

In fact, she was not very willing to see it.

However, the fact that Japan also has KanColle was previously just speculation, but now that it is confirmed, it is not surprising at all - the British also have them.