Bismarck

This pressure... I'm afraid the General Staff is now anxiously assessing how many troops are needed to "plug the leak" in the Mediterranean, right?

Besides boosting morale and exerting some pressure on Germany's overall strategy by announcing the results, Churchill might have also been thinking of using a divisive tactic. He was isolated overseas, the Führer knew nothing about naval operations, and was a bit suspicious, and... Raeder was right next to the Führer. In addition, Raeder and he had a bad relationship... Now, Raeder might have already started to say something in front of the Führer.

Unfortunately, these are all open conspiracies. I know what it will be like, but I have no idea how to break it...

A feeling of powerlessness, like a levee bursting with water to prevent flooding, surged into Lütjens' heart...

Chapter 638: No good news

With a bang, a memo clip full of documents was smashed to the ground. Along with it, there was a slightly hoarse roar...

"Scum. A bunch of scum. I'm so pissed off."

Even though most of the sound had been blocked by the heavy oak door, the two guards standing outside the mustache's office couldn't help but feel a chill on the back of their necks and their necks shrank...

In the office, the man with a mustache was really angry.

Lütjens had four shipgirls, and the enemy shipgirls had at most one war-weary one. However, the four shipgirls went all out, and 37 merchant ships with 200,000 tons of supplies arrived in India...

He didn't want to say anything about tactics, but the man with a mustache was concerned about strategy. Once these supplies arrived in India, how much impact would they have on his war situation.

"Lütjens. You have betrayed the trust of the Greater German Empire."

Churchill's radio speech can be said to be a slap in the face to himself.

The more he thought about it, the angrier the mustache got. He called Redl over and started to criticize him in person...

Of course Redel didn't feel anything at all and even wanted to laugh.

.....................

At the same time, in the meeting room of the Socotra Island Garrison...

Lütjens, Bonte, Lindemann, Top, Bismarck, Zeppelin, even the hamster who was dragged out by Lindemann because he was afraid of trouble and didn't want to go out with the blanket, and Eugen who came here with Top... The eight most core people in the garrison sat neatly in the conference room, one by one, and there was complete silence...

The British transport team had already reached India, and this result could not be changed. Even though there was no convenient land transportation line from India to the Middle East - even though the Iranian King Reza Khan, who was separated from India and the Middle East, was forced to agree to open the land transportation line to Britain and the United States in order to keep his throne, it was basically unrealistic to transport these 200,000 tons of materials by land given Iran's poor infrastructure.

However, the main forces of the British and American Indian Ocean Fleets, though suffering heavy losses, have now been fully assembled in India. If they sail close to the coastline with the Allied shore-based airports as cover, not to mention that their ammunition and carrier-based aircraft have been exhausted in the previous naval battles and urgently need to be replenished, even their submarines, which are good at sneak attacks, will have absolutely no chance.

As for Auchinleck, who has obtained these 200,000 tons of supplies, will he take the opportunity to launch a counterattack?

Bismarck, who was the secretary, secretly glanced at the people around him: the four captains were all smoking with their heads down; Zeppelin was as depressed as himself; Eugen looked at Top with some concern as he clenched his fists, with an expression that seemed to want to say something but stopped; as for his good sister Tirpitz, she was hiding in the corner behind Lindemann and leaning against the wall. According to convention, she should be secretly taking a nap now - but no one wanted to say anything to her, including Bismarck himself...

We've been defeated... Everyone's spirit seems to have changed a little...

Looking at everyone's depressed faces, Bismarck sighed slightly.

Although victory and defeat are common in the military, and although a lot of ammunition and carrier-based aircraft were lost this time, no one was seriously injured. Those injuries were not too serious, and everyone was a ship girl, plus the maintenance workshop, they all had the ability to repair themselves. Even if they had to repair themselves, they were confident that they could repair themselves.

As a soldier, what I fear most is not how strong the enemy in front of me is, but being stabbed in the back.

Although everyone had tried their best in the battle, and the record was acceptable - three battleships and five escort carriers were sunk, several enemy ships including the battleship Warspite and the aircraft carrier Indefatigable were severely damaged, and more than 10,000 sailors and crew members including Somerville were killed. The main limitation was running out of ammunition rather than not fighting hard - otherwise, Warspite might not have been able to return alive.

but……

If the mustache guy is not satisfied, then nothing he says will work.

Living with a king is like living with a tiger. I used to see this scene a lot in TV dramas, but now I finally experienced it myself.

Looking at the still very rich and detailed combat records and navigation logs in front of him, and then looking at the pile of material papers that were originally used to write the battle summary but are still blank, Bismarck has the urge to throw down the pen and meeting record book in his hand and grab his two claws in his hair and scratch it desperately...

What are these things?

Next to Bismarck, looking at the Persian cat that was going a little crazy, Lütjens clearly felt something - it was impossible not to feel it, the spirit behind that ship cat was almost black...

But... Lütjens himself felt like sighing...

With the logbooks and combat records, it is not difficult to write a combat summary report. The difficult part is to give an explanation to the head of state... After all, the whole world knows that the character of their head of state is, to put it bluntly, a middle school student.

The war has gotten to this point, so it is impossible to conceal it or drag it out, as this will arouse suspicion that someone has "ulterior motives".

“…Forget it, let’s start writing the battle summary report. Write down what can be written first, and as for the rest, I can just go back and report in person…” Lütjens took a deep puff of his cigarette and said.

Hearing what Lütjens said, Bismarck raised his head and looked at Lütjens beside him: "Captain? This...?"

She always felt that with Redel's and Little Moustache's behavior, they would probably go back and be scolded again.

"What else can we do? After all, we still have to write the combat report. As for how to explain it to the Führer and how to plan the next step... there is no other way now. We can only take it one step at a time."

Lütjens smiled bitterly with mixed feelings, snorted, and said lightly.

After thinking about it, it seems that this is the only way.

Fortunately, a combat summary is not difficult to write.

only……

"Tell me what you think, what should we do next?"

Lütjens shrugged his shoulders helplessly and spread his hands, then sat on the chair and lay down like Ge You facing the backrest.

Military appearance and so on... Let’s solve the problem first.

But this question...

Several people looked at each other and their faces became even uglier.

This battle was very costly.

Although the battleships were not seriously damaged, Bismarck and Tirpitz had basically used up all their main gun ammunition, and Prinz Eugen was not much behind. As for Zeppelin's GR-186 squadron, it also lost nearly half of its aircraft, and almost all of its aircraft needed to be overhauled.

To make matters worse, right after he left, the British sent troops to attack the poorly defended Socotra Island. And the bombing by plane alone was not enough, they even used the cover of the bombing to send special forces from submarines to attack the warehouse area - although the most critical caves were heavily guarded, the loss of supplies was still huge.

The remaining supplies were on the table, and everyone had a basic understanding of them, including the ammunition that the sailors were carrying to the ship outside the porthole. Bismarck and Tirpitz had less than 203 rounds of main gun shells and less than two bases of 150 rounds of 6000 main gun shells, and rounds of secondary shells. In addition, there were a lot of torpedoes left. Although Bismarck and Tirpitz had been "kindly" equipped with torpedo tubes by Raeder when they were still in France, basically, except for Prinz Eugen, these torpedoes were used by submarines...

There are about two bases of nearly 105 50mm anti-aircraft shells left, less than three bases of 37 50mm anti-aircraft shells, and less than three bases of 50 mm anti-aircraft shells. But the problem is that although the total number of these anti-aircraft shells is not small, because Socotra Island is very close to the Arabian Peninsula and the African continent, these ammunition are used to deal with air raids on a daily basis. One base of shells is theoretically a month's ammunition quota. Although there are nearly three bases of mm anti-aircraft shells, the three ships Bismarck, Tirpitz and Prinz Eugen have a total of twin-mounted anti-aircraft guns and gun barrels. In other words... Persian cats can count them on their fingers. On average, each anti-aircraft gun can get shells per day. .

As for the fuel reserves, it was even more dangerous. Even with the diesel supplied to submarines, there were less than 40,000 tons of fuel for ships. And the aviation gasoline reserves, together with the shore-based reconnaissance aircraft and air defense forces, had dropped to a dangerous level of only 4,000 tons.

Moreover, the most critical thing now is that the safety of the logistics line is probably not guaranteed.

The Suez Canal and the Red Sea are both very narrow, so it is impossible to deploy troops. Moreover, the distance from Port Said to Socotra Island is nearly 3,000 kilometers, which is within the combat radius of British bombers. Not to mention that transport ships sailing in such places are like sitting ducks, even the main fleet must be extremely careful when sailing in such places.

The transportation was previously possible because the British did not have high-grade aviation gasoline in North Africa.

Ever since the North American Continental Merchants first set the precedent of making money, getting rich, raising the flag, and independence, Britain, fearing the consequences of the economic development of its colonies, has been strictly restricting the economic development of its colonies and puppet states. Although it has now been forced to authorize Auchinleck to open a number of crude oil refineries in the Middle East that are firmly in the hands of the British army, the crude gasoline refined by that kind of crude equipment is of very poor quality. It is OK for cars and tanks (which mainly used gasoline at the time), but if it is to be used for aircraft... no one dares to take the risk.

The cheap gasoline will reduce the output power of the engine, affect the reliability of the engine, and also shorten the service life of the engine. However, the engine failure of cars and tanks is still acceptable - at most, they will just stop working. But the engine failure of an airplane... that's really terrible...

But now, the British have brought in large quantities of supplies - this convoy includes more than ten large oil tankers.

In other words, the Middle East-North Africa theater air force will soon be fully revived.

Chapter 639: Loyalty to the Emperor and Patriotism

In the silent conference room, everyone could only hear the sound of their own heartbeats...

Breakout...

This topic is really too heavy...

Everyone knew that a breakout would mean the complete failure of the German-Japanese coalition's plan to blockade the Indian Ocean. Even the communication between the Axis powers would have to be cut off from then on.

On the other hand, if they break out, the Japanese Indian Ocean Fleet will basically be alone. Although Bismarck doesn't care whether the Japanese fleet retreats or not, Britain and the United States can go west to the Mediterranean from the Middle East and go north to reinforce the Soviet Union. In addition, they can easily import large quantities of crude oil from Saudi Arabia, Iran and other semi-colonial countries with rich oil reserves...

The consequences are too serious.

From a big picture perspective, we shouldn't easily call for a breakout unless it's absolutely necessary...

However, the resource reserves of the Socotra Island Garrison are now very limited. Even if there is an urgent request for supplies now, with the Italians' shipping capabilities and the speed of their transport ships, it would be difficult to cross the 2000-kilometer Red Sea and reach the Socotra Island Garrison before the British take action.

Although the Socotra Island Garrison still has ten armed merchant ships as a base, mainly used as disguised attack ships but also as auxiliary cruisers for supply ships. However, the speed of these armed merchant ships is too slow, and their self-defense capabilities in front of the regular battle fleet are also weak. The number of four ship girls is too small, and there is no way to cover them well. In other words, these disguised attack ships must be deployed to the sea and dispersed as soon as possible - if they are not prepared to break through now, they will definitely not be able to leave when they really break through.

but…

Bismarck glanced at his captain and found that Lütjens's eyes were obviously full of solemnity...

The current Bismarck is no longer the girl who had just traveled through time four years ago and whose understanding of military affairs was basically learned from some mobile games. Needless to say, she also knows very well that breaking through is not that easy.

For example, if I could think of evacuating the transport ships in advance, how could Cunningham and the others not think of it?

However, if this is the case, the problem will be even bigger.

Bismarck had a headache.

Auxiliary cruisers have a slow speed and weak self-defense firepower compared to warships. If they want to sail, they must avoid the search fleet deployed by the British in the Indian Ocean based on island bases. Therefore, the location of these transport ships must be as far away as possible from the deep Indian Ocean east of Diego Garcia. Conservative estimates show that based on the Seychelles Islands, the easternmost of the British base group in Madagascar, in order to ensure safety, they must be at least 2,000 kilometers away from the British base - and it is not necessarily safe.

Moreover, this is just the minimum homework.

At this point in the war, the Allies certainly knew they had to break out - although the Allies were also aware of their own combat effectiveness, if they wanted to return to Germany from Socotra Island, apart from basically having no chance of breaking through the Strait of Gibraltar a second time, the nearest route was to go around the Cape of Good Hope and return home.

However, even this "shortest" route is at least 25,000 kilometers.

Moreover, this does not even include the consumption of the intercepting fleet on the way. It also does not include the possibility of launching a sea-based anti-shipping war due to pressure from superiors or other reasons...

The expedition of the fleet was a very complicated matter. Although as a ship girl, I could temporarily ignore the troubles such as equipment failure and seabed organisms attaching to reduce the speed, but even the arrangement of the supply ship was enough to give me a headache.

The auxiliary cruiser has a limited speed and must take a detour through remote sea areas to ensure safety. Even if the transport fleet is evacuated now, the supply ship's range of activities is unlikely to exceed the west of Cape Town. If there is no specific plan for the breakout, the specific sea area where the supply ship is arranged will directly limit the range of activities of the fleet. Not to mention, if the supply ship is captured and sunk, or if the intelligence is leaked, the range of activities of these supply ships must be able to organize backup supply points...

The 25000-kilometer Long March is not that easy.

Bismarck suddenly remembered a famous event in modern history about climbing a snowy mountain and crossing a grassland in history class. Hmm... it was related to a group of rabbits...

Meanwhile, Lütjens seems to have figured out something...

"Zeppelin, how many planes do you have now? Especially, how many planes can be put on board?"

"Plane..." Zeppelin thought for a moment and answered with certainty: "Including the planes at the Socotra Airport and the planes on my main body, if you count the planes that can be repaired after being damaged in the battle, there are about 109 planes that can be used - about 190 BF-87Ts, 110 FW-Ts, JU-s, and the remaining BF- twin-engine fighters that cannot be put on board. However, many of these planes need to be repaired now, and our maintenance materials, spare parts, and airborne torpedo reserves are not very much - there are only airborne torpedoes now, less than a basic number of . In other words, the shells for the aircraft cannons are still sufficient, and there are about two basic numbers of aerial bombs..."

Listening to Zeppelin's words, several people's faces looked unhappy - if Bismarck, the little hamster and little Eugen could still hold on for a while, the situation on Zeppelin's side would be really bad - one hundred and thirty planes, four thousand tons of aviation gasoline, and eighty airborne torpedoes, what use would they be?

Who doesn’t know the importance of air superiority now?

"If our logistics lines are cut off, we won't be able to hold on for much longer, right?"

Lütjens was silent for a while. But at this moment, the homegirl hiding in the corner began to mutter:

"So we still have to break out in the end, so why are you hesitating? Really, if you don't find it troublesome, then I am..."

"Hey, we're in a meeting." Lindman, who was sitting in front of Grapes, was really frightened by his hamster's sudden interruption. He quickly turned around and raised his palm, about to slap the pink-haired one - how could you interrupt when everyone was in a serious meeting?

"I'm telling the truth... Ouch." The hamster who was patted held his head and continued to mutter in dissatisfaction. Although everyone could see that Lindemann was just patting him lightly...

"We're in a meeting now, so let's talk it out!"

He clapped his hands twice more. Even though Lindeman was always heartless and wanted nothing more than to stir up trouble, he was having a headache in a meeting now, looking at this hamster who was always making trouble regardless of the occasion.

"Wait, Tizi seems to be right?" Hearing Tizi's muttering, Lütjens' heart suddenly jumped. Then he looked around. The ship cat that was staring at the hamster and grinding its teeth didn't count, Lindemann who was slapping the hamster didn't count, and Eugen who was naturally cute and silly didn't count. The rest of them, Bonte, Top, Zeppelin... all looked thoughtful...

Seeing this scene, Lütjens felt relieved: Yes... since we have to break out sooner or later, it would be better to make preparations for the breakout first instead of holding this meeting here.

"We've been through so many ups and downs for so many years, but nobody has seen it as clearly as Tizi this time."

--------

Just when Lütjens had made up his mind, the sound of an air raid alarm suddenly came from outside.

"Woo~~~Woo~~~Woo~~~"

When the air raid alarm was heard, everyone in the conference room changed their expressions...

"what happened?"

"I gonna go see."

Bismarck stood up quickly and ran out to inquire about the situation. Not long after, Bismarck came back with the situation and rushed into the meeting room again, with a somewhat exasperated look on his face:

"Captain, the radar station on the main peak reported that a large number of British bombers were spotted 200 kilometers away. They are heading towards us. I have already suspended the unloading operation and are ready to evade at any time."

"what?"

After hearing Bismarck's report, Lütjens, Zeppelin, Bonte, Lindemann... could no longer sit still.

"The transport ship we evacuated earlier has just returned to the port and is still unloading. They actually came at this time... I'm afraid they did it on purpose. These guys are just bastards." Lindman was the first to curse.

"Massive bombers... Is this a sign that they are preparing to launch a counterattack? But... their transport fleet should not have entered the Persian Gulf yet..." Zeppelin was very angry, but also a little bit unbelievable.

“It may not be the 200,000 tons… They smuggled and airlifted them before, so I’m afraid they have some reserves…” Bangtai analyzed calmly with a gloomy face.

"Never mind him. The most important thing now is to save the transport ship." Lütjens waved his hand, interrupting the discussion: "Fortunately, we still have a lot of anti-aircraft ammunition on the hull - all of you teleport back and weigh anchor immediately. Zeppelin will command all aircraft to attack urgently. Bismarck Grape Eugen will cover the transport ship. Put other things aside for now and talk about it after we repel this wave of air raids!"

"Yes!"

With a crisp answer of "basically", the four ship girls - Bismarck, Zeppelin, Prince Eugen, and Grape, who was pulled back by the Persian cat's arm - disappeared from the conference room in an instant. The four captains also began to rush out of the conference room door in a hurry. In the next second, the four warships, where the sailors were nervously pulling anchor, ruddering and pushing the bell, seemed to come alive in an instant. The mechanical equipment on the hull seemed to run more smoothly suddenly...