Bismarck

"So, your plan is to simply gather all of our and the United States' 14 battleships and three escort carriers, and then repair the injured Indefatigable and drag it over, and finally fight a decisive battle with the Germans?"

Speaking of which, until now, Summerville still feels that this mission is a bit unbelievable...

"Yeah, what else can we do?" Cunningham spread his hands with a wry smile, "Speaking of which, our fleet will be divided into two waves this time. My flagship is the Indefatigable, with North Carolina and Washington as the mobile force, following behind you. Its only mission is to cover you, and then to encircle and destroy the German fleet."

"And your task is the most difficult!"

Cunningham looked at Summerville, put away the playful smile on his face, and said seriously: "Your mission is simple to say, it is nothing more than taking all eleven old warships and nine escort aircraft carriers to cover the transport ships. But... In fact, this mission is divided into two parts, so you have to find a way to do two things:"

"The most important thing, of course, is to do everything we can to save the transport ships. Especially those 356-knot high-speed tankers made in the United States. The Middle East is most in need of high-grade aviation gasoline. If you really can't handle it, you can arrange cruisers and destroyers to cover the tankers first. After all, German submarines can't catch up with the -knot speed! If you are afraid that the Japanese cruisers will come to cause trouble, you can also let American Major General Giffen take the four old battleships equipped with main guns to follow the tanker fleet to cover it."

"I know that. To be honest, I plan to let Giffen take the old battleship to directly cover the transport fleet. I will take our 15-inch and the American 16-inch to hold off the German ships from the outside!"

Summerville expressed his opinion directly. Speaking of which, he had known the idea of ​​this battle plan for a long time and had also carried out some combat research on it.

Although... with the absolutely inferior speed of these old battleships, I still don't have much confidence...

Cunningham on the other side was equally clear about this - although Somerville on the opposite side spoke in a nonchalant tone, as a fellow admiral with many years of experience, Cunningham knew very well how much determination his old friend had made behind his nonchalant tone!

While thinking about whether he should move his fleet forward to cover Somerville, he continued to elaborate on the battle plan:

“…Another thing you have to do is: while you are covering the transport fleet, you must also delay the Germans as much as possible, and then I will take the next step according to the situation - in fact, this is the same problem as the first thing. As long as the German ships and crew are delayed, the only enemies of the transport fleet are submarines! You should be able to deal with submarines, right?” As he spoke, Cunningham, who knew how difficult this task was, was amused by his own self-deprecating jokes: “…Besides, in order to fight against the German ships and crew, I even gave my wife to you to command - only she can guide those iron turtles who have served for decades to exert long-range firepower to fight against those German ships and crew... Ouch, it hurts, it hurts, honey, I was wrong, don’t be stubborn…”

"Humph!" Seeing Cunningham talking nonsense without restraint, a certain battleship that is always 17 years old couldn't stand it anymore and snorted in dissatisfaction. Not only did he not let go, he twisted it another half a circle:

"Shipmen!? Decades!? Iron-blooded bastard!? Cunningham, you are rebelling, aren't you?!"

“…Honey, I was wrong…it hurts…”QAQ

Looking at the war-weary and lion-like aura, and then looking at Cunningham who looked like he was always suffering, Summerville on the other side looked at this scene and couldn't help but sweat on his head...

"My old friend, your wife is so fierce, I have to stay away from her... This is your own family matter, you should figure out how to subdue her..."

Chapter 611: Operation Support

In order to support Auchinleck, who was surrounded and struggling alone in the Middle East-North Africa theater, the Allies mobilized almost all the forces they could for this "support" operation that could not afford to fail!

In just this one month, under Cunningham's operation, the Allies have gradually used the Glorieuses Islands in the Mozambique Channel as a transit point, and under the cover of the Seychelles Islands, an outpost with dense airports, they have assembled a transport fleet of 76 merchant ships - among which the 17 high-speed tankers headed by the Ohio tanker leased from the United States are the focus of this escort operation. The 200,000 tons of high-grade aviation gasoline they are carrying is the greatest hope for the Allies to revive the British Empire's Middle East Air Force, which had previously suffered from fuel shortages!

The huge fleet was arranged into a six-way column 15 kilometers long and 4 kilometers wide. Under the escort of 30 cruisers and destroyers, relying on the geographical cover of the island airport, it bypassed the German submarine activity-intensive area west of the Seychelles Islands from behind and secretly sailed out of the Madagascar Strait.

Because Somerville had been using the ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam on the coast of East Africa as the main transshipment ports, the current activities of German submarines are mainly in the East African coast west of Seychelles. After the Zeppelin attacked and suppressed the airport, the submarines collectively sneaked in to engage in mine-laying activities. In addition to this area, the other two submarine activity centers are in the coastal areas of India and on the route from Madagascar to South Africa. However, due to Cunningham and Somerville's careful planning and strong organization, and the fact that the transshipment ports on the coast of East Africa are still continuing the intensive unloading work, these submarines did not discover one thing: unknowingly, the anti-submarine warships here have gradually been replaced from regular destroyers to escort destroyers such as the Castle-class and Hunt-class...

Even in the escort fleet, the Royal Navy was fighting with all its might! Under Churchill's strict orders, the Royal Navy spared no expense, and the ships it deployed even included several newly commissioned cruisers and destroyers: the Dido-class anti-aircraft cruisers Luna, Hermione, Euryale, Rusalka, Argonaut, and even the third batch of Dido-class ships that had just been rushed into service, and the Charybdis and Hexagram, which replaced the slow-firing 114mm anti-aircraft guns with better-performing 133mm anti-aircraft guns!

In addition to these cutting-edge cruisers, the escort fleet also includes three escort aircraft carriers hiding in front of the merchant fleet, as well as the current main force of the British Royal Navy's destroyers: twenty destroyers including the L-class, M-class, O-class and P-class!

Although considering the large size of the escort fleet, the number of thirty escort warships is still a bit tight - but this is the maximum force that the British Royal Navy and the US Navy can now put together!

After all, both the Battle of the Atlantic and the War of the Pacific are still in full swing...

----------

Not far behind this large escort fleet, two fleets that appeared equally large were mixed together, and were saying their final goodbyes to their old comrades before the battle, under the dim sunset that dyed the surface of the Indian Ocean and the sky red as blood...

"Cunningham, I'll leave first then!"

A transport boat with the emblem of the battleship Warrior was docked next to the aircraft carrier Indefatigable. For some reason, Somerville did not use the Warspite as his flagship, but continued to choose the battleship Warrior as his flagship. Now, Somerville was standing by the gangway, ready to go back to battle at any time.

"What do you mean by who goes first and who doesn't? It sounds so unlucky... But speaking of it, do you feel confident about this plan? Even though we've made so many preparations, why do I still feel unsure..."

On the gangway of the USS Indefatigable, which was guarded by North Carolina and Washington, Cunningham, standing opposite Somerville, looked at his old friend with helplessness.

"I can't help it. I understand your feelings. After all, your opponent is the Lütjens Fleet... I'm more unsure than you. After all, your Warspite has fought against the Bismarck in a battle that's about the same as yours. But even if I was relying on a place like the Gibraltar Fortress, I was severely beaten..."

"You're pretty good. Look at Tovey... He's come out of this now after winning the Battle of Norway. Look at how he was back then... I don't know how you feel, but it scares me to see you go through that..." Cunningham put his hands on his hips and looked towards the night in the east with a wry smile. That was the dark blue curtain that was gradually engulfing the Indian Ocean...

"Haha, you are trying to get me to take care of your wife on the battlefield!" Summerville smiled disdainfully, pretending to be someone who doesn't know you. He even stretched out his hand, pinched his five fingers together, and made a gesture like calling a cock to fight, and poked Cunningham's shoulder twice. Seeing this, Cunningham, who was annoyed, slapped his hand aside:

"Hey, what are you doing? Don't you look like an admiral? Why don't you learn from Tovey?"

"Hehe, you're still talking about me? Everyone knows that you, an old man, use your power for personal gain and flirt with your wife all day long. You're simply a disgrace to the Royal Navy!" Summerville laughed and jumped directly onto the transport boat. He told his men to untie the ropes and started the engine hanging at the stern: "Your wife has a bad temper. I dare not offend her. I'd better stay more comfortable on the Warrior. You just wait until this battle is over, and then your Lady Belle will train you all day long, hahahaha..."

With a half-taunting, half-blessing joke, Somerville's transport boat gradually disappeared into the deep night that descended on the Indian Ocean. Soon, the fleet commanded by Somerville - twelve old battleships, six escort aircraft carriers, seven cruisers and destroyers, also weighed anchor one by one, and under the cover of night, left the assembled waters and went out to catch up with the escort fleet...

Only an old man who was so angry at the teasing of his old friend for decades was left jumping up and down on the gangway of the aircraft carrier Indefatigable...

------April 17, 1942, dusk, Indian Ocean---------

It was another moment of sunset, and not only the fleet, but even the entire sky and earth were dyed a deep red like blood by the setting sun.

The red color of the sky, in the midst of the beautiful scenery, seems to foreshadow the blood that is about to be spilled into the sea.

It has been two whole days since the fleet left the protection of the Seychelles base, but at this moment when a powerful enemy may appear at any time, the depressing atmosphere seems like an invisible weight, suppressing the hearts of everyone in the fleet!

It has been two days, and whenever we didn't rest, we kept our eyes wide open with fear in our eyes, looking around for any slightest movement!

Everyone seemed to be having trouble breathing.

Are there some brutal killers lurking in the dark abyss under the sea, spying on them and ready to give them a fatal blow at any time?

Although the transport fleet was protected by twelve old battleships, nine escort aircraft carriers, and thirty-five light warships, and although everyone knew that there was a large aircraft carrier and two new battleships following the escort fleet, and although Cunningham had tried his best to make careful arrangements for this operation, and although until now, the patrol planes above the fleet, the radio direction-finding teams on the warships, and the destroyers leading the way in front of the fleet had not found anything unusual...

but……

Psychological pressure is like an invisible noose that suffocates everyone's breath!

Who dares to relax?

No one dares.

After all, the opponent this time was Admiral Gunther Lütjens, the master of the German Navy's infamous demon warships! He and his demon warships gained their fame by wantonly trampling on the glory of the Royal Navy for three hundred years and suffering countless casualties!

The name Lütjens can now be used to scare people in the UK.

Even a veteran of the Royal Navy like Somerville, facing such an opponent, was nervously reviewing the logbook, chart marks, and battle plan over and over again - the enemy was too strong, and Somerville had no choice but to be careful! You know, even a ship girl with great military achievements like Warspite was not confident about the joint attack of the Bismarck sisters, the Edelweiss Witch, and the Black Storm Prince Eugen...

"Alas... at this point, we can only do our best and leave the rest to fate..."

I looked at the clock on the wall and saw that the hands of the clock had already reached midnight without me noticing! When the hands reached twelve o'clock, the originally quiet but fear-suppressing room suddenly rang with the sound of bells!

In the depths of Summerville's heart, he inexplicably felt that the sound of the bell seemed to be a premonition that the road ahead would be filled with danger and strangeness...

Shaking his head, as if to drive the fear out of his mind, Somerville grabbed a cup of coffee beside him, raised his head and drank it all in one gulp. Then, ignoring the smoky environment in the office, he continued to hold a cigarette and review the battle plan and the logbook...

"So far, in the past two days, no enemy submarine activities have been found... According to intelligence, they don't have enough submarines in the Indian Ocean, so it seems that we should have bypassed the enemy submarine activity area..."

Looking at the nautical chart and comparing it with several large volumes of combat records and reference materials, Somerville felt a little relieved.

After all, the scale of his transport fleet was too large, and the merchant fleet could only drive at 11 knots - just over 20 kilometers! As for the German submarines - even though he knew that the Germans only had Type VII medium-sized submarines in the Indian Ocean, there were not many Type IX ocean-going submarines here, and the ones that were there were mainly on the route from Madagascar to South Africa, using the Diego Garcia Islands occupied by Japan as their base of operations.

But... even if it is a Type VII, its speed on the water can reach over 16 knots! There is no doubt that it can catch up with the transport ship!

If the transport convoy was discovered by them and reported to Lütjens and the Japanese army, let alone the terrifying German fleet of shipgirls, the summoned wolves alone could easily steal merchant ships for several days in such a large transport convoy with extremely complex command - even these iron bastards under their feet would most likely be in trouble!

Fortunately, I should be able to bypass it now - this is really good news! You know, in order to hurry up, I have been walking in a straight line that is very easy to be tracked and ambushed by submarines!

It seemed that there was no need to worry about submarines for the time being. Somerville, feeling relieved, opened the logbook and the sextant observation record that had just been produced not long ago, took out the multi-purpose plotting ruler and compass protractor, and began to review the fleet's track according to the logbook and sextant observation record...

After their fleet left the base's air defense circle northeast of Seychelles, it overcame the influence of the monsoon and ocean currents at a speed of just over 20 kilometers per hour, and advanced cautiously little by little along the northeast direction, to the extreme reconnaissance radius of Japanese reconnaissance aircraft at the Maldives-Digo Garcia Airport.

It was said that the British government certified the intelligence as "absolutely reliable". The number of Japanese reconnaissance planes in the Indian Ocean was not too large, even though the range of these planes was terrifying. However, it seemed that this "super secret" was indeed very powerful! At least in the past two days, the entire fleet had not encountered any Japanese, and even the signals of Japanese aircraft had not been seen on the radar once!

But... this doesn't mean that I'm safe now - it's more likely that the enemy has discovered me, but I don't even know it! !

"God bless Britain... Amen..."

Somerville drew a cross on his chest. Now he had no other options but to pray silently for God's blessing for himself, the fate of the fleet in his hands, and the destiny of the British Empire...

ps: The long-awaited Bismarck is finally coming out.

Chapter 612: Action Begins

“Continue~Continue~Continue~~~!”

In the sunny Socotra Island Garrison, the silver swallows that are being trained (evil) and (deliberately) by a certain Edelweiss Witch are roaring in the blue sky.

Under the white clouds and trails of smoke in the blue sky, the sweaty sailors were operating the cranes on the transport ships under the command of the boatswain's whistle and flag, lifting supplies one by one - food, ammunition, fresh water, torpedoes, oil drums... to the dock. Then the sailors on the shore lifted these supplies onto reinforced trailers, and then either towed them or drove mules to transport these supplies to a special place - it could be a warehouse exploded in a mountain, or it could be transferred to the other transport ships that were seized from the Allies and used as mobile warehouses at sea and also served as attack ships.

And on the outskirts of these busy transport ships, a large Persian cat was lazily lying on the blue sea, curiously looking at the colorful coral reefs and tropical fish below it - many of which were said to be unique here - while comfortably basking in the gentle breeze and sunshine of the Indian Ocean in April.

Top took Eugen on patrol. It was better to say that Eugen had been imprisoned for a long time after serving as an attack ship in the Atlantic Ocean. The good girl had become wild. Somehow, she had developed a habit of strolling around and playing. But it was okay. Her captain Top doted on this little sister in the fleet. Not only did he often go out to play with her, but he would also occasionally bring back some wreckage of British submarines or captured special forces.

On the other side where the big Persian cat was lying, there was also a lazier big pink hamster.

The Persian cat's pointed ears suddenly moved - it seemed that in the direction of the large hamster, there came faintly the exasperated voice of a sharp-faced captain, and it seemed that he was dragging a ball in his hand... It seemed that a person (rat?) was wearing a bed sheet and wrapped in a quilt, and was kicking around in dissatisfaction in the bed sheet... one leg... ?

She moved her ears again, and she heard the voice and noise from the other side...

“… Lindemann, I just came back from Egypt last night… I’m so tired now. I don’t want to go to training…” (Flop, flop…)

"You're so tired! You rest every day, but I have to drive the ship and do maintenance. I also have to make delicious food for you after training... I'm doing all that! I'm not tired yet, why are you tired? - Don't be lazy, go to training! Your sister and the commander racked their brains every day to develop tactics, and the ballistic radar observation and correction thing they worked so hard to come up with is so powerful, what about you? How is your training going!?"

Lindeman shouted angrily while dragging the big hamster that was clinging to the quilt and didn't want to get up.

"This... this is instinct for me. I don't want to do it because it's so troublesome to train... Ah!!~ Lindeman! Let go!! Don't pull a girl's feet! Pervert!!..." The hamster in the sheets stretched out its other leg and kicked Lindeman for a while.

“Hey, hey, hey! …You’re still kicking…still kicking!” Lindman grabbed the hamster’s other foot and said, “Hey, you can’t kick anymore now – come on, be good and follow me to train!”

Ignoring Tizi's protest, Lindmann simply dragged the pink hamster by its hind legs and forcibly dragged this huge hamster weighing 50,000 tons towards the artillery command post.

"Tsk, these two... I'm afraid this kind of fighting is a daily occurrence..."

Bismarck knew very well that the hamster was just being cute and acting coquettish. Otherwise, her real body was on the boat. Even if ten thousand Lindemanns came together, they wouldn't be able to drag her even a centimeter! - Have you ever seen someone who can pull his own collar and lift himself up?

Besides, everyone knows that apart from the strict training requirements, Lindeman basically agrees to whatever a certain hamster asks for!

In fact, Lindemann is actually a hamster slave...

So~

"These two are clearly showing off their affection in disguise... Tsk..."

-

Bismarck ignored his sister's daily fights and continued to look at the transport ships that were busy unloading.

In fact, the source of these transport ships are mainly attack ships or captured merchant ships. In order to ensure safety, every time, Tizi would take the transport ships and follow the Italian army's own escort liner transport fleet to Somalia, running back and forth between Egypt and Socotra Island, transporting materials and supplies.

As for why grapes...

Bismarck smacked his lips, feeling a little greedy - why did Grape go to escort? It was because there were delicious foods in Egypt! And there were Middle Eastern and Italian flavors! And whatever she wanted to eat, Lindemann would pay for it!

Every time this girl comes back from Egypt, her face is greasy and her stomach is full!

But unfortunately, as the flagship, I have to stay in the garrison and can't go anywhere!

And the most ironic thing is that every time this hamster goes back, it eats and drinks a lot. Not only does it eat a lot of delicious food and drinks until its belly is full, but it has almost never been seen that it brings anything for itself!

"Are these sisters still going to do this?!"

Looking at the piles of delicious food in the hamster's nest, the Persian cat felt his paws itchy for some reason...

But...

The Persian cat basking in the sun wagged its tail lazily, raised its head with a relaxed mood, and looked in the direction of the port and the airport.

Right under his nose, the garrison has changed drastically!

After four months of hard work by the officers and soldiers, the Socotra Island Garrison has initially reached a certain scale.

The road from the pier to the airport was originally a mountain road, but now it has been completely opened up into a flat area - not only can it be used as a highway, but there are also some anti-aircraft artillery positions, as well as outposts and bunkers to prevent special forces from attacking and destroying it.

The stones produced by the blasting and excavation have been packed into boxes and used to fill the space between the two original anti-torpedo nets, forming a small but sturdy and effective breakwater. It is said that during the monsoon season in June every year, the winds here are strong and the waves are high, and it is impossible not to build a breakwater!

And that’s not all!

On the cliffs behind the port town and the airport, the engineers used blasting and digging to open several caves as warehouses and fuel depots, and built fortifications for strict defense. For some frequently used anti-aircraft shells and aviation gasoline, they took out some daily supplies, dug several bunkers at the edge of the airport and the anti-aircraft artillery positions, and piled them up at several field storage points, which were covered with camouflage nets - even if these temporary storage points exploded, the losses could be controlled.

Even behind the port and the airport, on the top of the 1300-meter-high and extremely steep main peak, the engineers used explosives, stone slabs and various simple building materials to blast out several flat areas and bunkers, and built a simple access road. Relying on a small spring not far from the top of the mountain, the radar station, generator and 20mm anti-aircraft gun were moved up the mountain and placed in the small flat areas and bunkers separately - the radar antenna and electronic equipment can be separated by dozens of meters! As long as the radar equipment is safe, blowing up the antenna is nothing more than building another iron frame, that's all!

Although, as a price, these explosives dismantled dozens of 380mm high-explosive bombs! Therefore, on the Bismarck and Tirpitz, each ship inexplicably had several high-explosive bombs turned into chaff jammers...

However, this is nothing for the Socotra Island Garrison, which is not short of ammunition at the moment.

"Continue~Continue~Continue~Continue~..."

Not far away, the boatswain's horn was still blowing slowly. In his own office, the captain was sitting at his desk, with documents, battle reports and files in his hands...

What a peaceful day, isn't it...?

only……

"Report to the Commander! Urgent telegram!!"