Bismarck

"Keep it in the archives, and send a telegram by the way, asking the Perth base (in the southwest of Australia) to be careful and evacuate the fuel as soon as possible." Cunningham leaned on the side armrest of the chair in a nonchalant manner, watching his secretary ship put the information back into the folder: "The Royal Australian Navy seems to have only two light cruisers and four destroyers left now. Not only is Perth Port easy to defend but also close to Lütjens. If they really come here to rob fuel, it is not impossible..."

"Then tell me, which way will Lütjens and the others go back?" After receiving the telegram, War-weary did not leave immediately. Instead, he looked at Cunningham and asked.

"It could be either side, but it's not a big problem." Cunningham leaned back in his chair, chuckled, and shrugged. "Auchinleck won't need our supplies for at least two months, but Lütjens can only hold out for a month at most... Now the shipping in the South Atlantic has begun to clear the land, and the ports of Freetown, Sierra Leone and Cape Town are large enough to accommodate large merchant fleets. And now the Americans in South America have also used diplomatic means to send a fleet over to forcibly shut down their shipping industry. Now Lütjens wants to get fuel? I'm afraid it's impossible..."

Speaking of those Latin American countries, Cunningham couldn't help but sneer: "You know, those South American countries are independent countries in name only. They are shouting about national independence every day, and people take to the streets every day. But who doesn't know what they are actually like? Aren't they just a bunch of big talkers who are on the fence with the powerful countries?"

“…Yeah, everyone can shout for independence, and taking to the streets to cause trouble and military coups are nothing new. But we all know who gave these people the courage to do this. Those who really have the courage to pursue independence would have died long ago…” There was some sarcasm and some disdain in the war-weary tone.

Do you really think that those fence-sitters are truly pro-German?

Don't even think about how much oil Lütjens would have left after fleeing to Latin America. Even if we really find them, what's the point? They are just fence-sitters who will follow whoever has money and power. Isn't it easy to sell off the Lütjens fleet that has no money, power, or oil? Even a battleship is useless without oil!

I don't know why, but War-weary suddenly imagined a scene in his mind: four broken bowls placed on the street corner, and four shivering shipmen were forced to act as idols in order to go home... After thinking about it, it seemed quite satisfying... ?

But there is more to it than just this one thing...

"There is one more thing, sir. According to the requirements of the emergency shipbuilding plan, Vickers Armstrong's four Goliath-class light aircraft carriers have completed sea trials. This is the sea trial appraisal report."

"Oh? Has it been completed so quickly?" Cunningham took the report from his wife and flipped through it with interest. He said as he read it, "... using the standards of a merchant ship hull, suitable for mass construction? The speed is 25 knots, and it can carry 36 or 37 aircraft... Well, not bad, not bad!"

"You call this good? This strength can only serve as a deterrent in front of Zeppelin!" War-weary rolled his eyes. "You know how despicable Lütjens and his men are! The battleships we can use now have been destroyed long ago - let alone the light ships. Among the battleships, there is only one aircraft carrier, the Vengeance, and four battleships, the Rodney, the Nelson, the Duke of York, and the Howe, that are combat-ready! If we weren't so short of manpower now, we wouldn't have gotten these ships..."

There is nothing we can do about War-weariness, after all, the crews on those four German ships are too rampant!

Ever since Lütjens led Bismarck to appear in the Norwegian Campaign, it is hard to count how many good things the German ship girls have ruined for the British Empire.

Our Royal Navy was one of the best in the world before the war, but after fighting so hard for the past few years, our warships are getting fewer and fewer! ?

As for the newly built battleships - whether it is the Lion class, the Ark Royal II class, or the additional four improved versions of the Vengeance... the fastest Lion class will not be available until the second half of the year, and the aircraft carrier will not be available until at least 2 years.

But she rolled her eyes, still feeling helpless.

It had been less than two months since my last discharge from the hospital, and now I was sent to the dock again by that Persian cat. Moreover, it was in a dock far away in India, and I had to wait for the materials from my homeland to be transported there for repairs! However, judging from the current situation in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic Ocean, I didn't know how long my repairs would take!

and……

Speaking of going to the United States for maintenance, War-weary felt a little itchy! Because every time she thought of this, she couldn't help but think of another annoying guy - William Wyatt, the director of MI6, who was trying to expose his own weaknesses by using the banner of Churchill and His Majesty the King!

When I went to the United States for repairs after the battle of El Alamein, this guy came to me right after I entered the dock. If he was a spy chief, it would be fine, but this guy said something shocking as soon as he opened his mouth: "For the final victory, please write down all the weaknesses of your ship girls..."

You have to write down your own weaknesses, and act as if it's natural...

War-weary: “???”

As a result, Cunningham, who was always a good guy and smiling, raised his fist when he heard this!

In the end, it was Churchill himself who came out and chattered left and right, either "Warspite, as a meritorious ship, the government can provide you with a lifetime pension by investing in a museum after the war" or "Cunningham, you are the First Sea Lord now, you have to consider the overall situation"... She only reluctantly wrote some things and handed them in for the sake of her husband's political future and the fact that they had to deal with German crews.

So when he thought about this matter, War-weary felt very upset.

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

The sun sets over Diego Garcia Island in the Indian Ocean.

The once bustling base was now deserted. Amid the screams of seabirds in the sky, only four lonely warships and two (captured) American transport ships were left in the harbor, slowly heating up their boilers.

Bismarck stood beside her captain, looking at the island base that was about to be abandoned in silence. She even felt a sense of blockage in her heart that she couldn't explain...

The scenery here is beautiful, but when I think about the fact that this is a Japanese base, I get a complicated feeling, with mixed emotions in my heart.

The long road ahead is about to begin.

Bismarck, with sharp eyes, could see that in the window of a cabin on the battleship Tirpitz next door, a pink-haired girl "painter" who looked indifferent drew a few strokes on her sketchpad, put away the sketchpad, threw herself on the bed with a gloomy mood, and covered herself with a quilt. On the other side, Eugen sat alone on the top of her own bridge, also looking at the sky in silence with a gloomy mood.

Bismarck knew what they were feeling, she was feeling the same way - she didn't even need to turn around to know that her captain, who was also everyone's commander, had a blank expression on his face, but he was always anxious and worried in his heart.

The captain is the one who is under the most pressure.

Looking at the abandoned Diego Garcia Island, Bismarck knew that this was the last reliable supply point for his fleet on its way home. After that, whether he could obtain supplies and return home safely, or disappear in the vast ocean due to running out of fuel, all depended on unpredictable fate...

Bismarck looked up at the sky again. As the sun set, the dark blue night had completely enveloped the earth. The last rays of the setting sun on the western sea and sky line were accompanied by the flickering of the Changgeng Star.

"Let's go, it's getting dark, we should set off..."

As Lütjens spoke in a voice without any emotion, he tightened his windbreaker while standing beside her, turned around and walked into the door of the command room...

A few seconds later, the Bismarck, the flagship of the German Kriegsmarine's Eastern Expeditionary Fleet, sounded the departure whistle.

The Long March has begun...

ps: New book, please collect it, urban fairy story. White fox x blood clan, lesbian story

Chapter 656: Endurance Consumed in the Harassment

"Report. Our submarines and reconnaissance planes near Diego Garcia have sent us information that has been confirmed over and over again. The Lütjens fleet has already left Diego Garcia. And it has been confirmed that the Lütjens fleet consists of four evil spirits and two transport ships, with a speed of 16 knots and a heading of..."

Admiral Fraser, the new commander of the Allied Indian Ocean Fleet, took the report handed to him by the staff, flipped through it carefully, and then looked at the nautical chart on the table for a while. After confirming Lütjens's position, he turned around and began to instruct the staff to record the combat orders:

"Since they have retreated, we should take this place back - go, pass on my order, have our receiving fleet land with the marines and take back Diego Garcia."

"Yes," the staff officer replied. But then he asked, "By the way, Commander, Lütjens is on his way, shouldn't we do something?"

"Do something? How? They have four evil spirits in their hands. It's best not to do anything before their fuel runs out." Fraser said as he sneered and gave the brainless staff officer a blank look.

"Uh..." After being scolded by his commander, the staff officer felt ashamed for a moment and turned around to issue the order first.

Fraser was still sneering, but he thought for a moment, turned around, stopped the staff officer who was about to leave, and added: "...But you are right. We can't let Lütjens get away too easily. Go, inform the entire army of Lütjens's breakout. Also, pass on my order to have the airports and submarine forces in Mauritius and South Africa strengthen reconnaissance and prepare for harassment operations. Even if we can't defeat the evil spirits, any consumption of their fuel and ammunition is helpful. If we can sink their transport ships, they will probably be in even greater trouble. Have you recorded it? If you have recorded it, go and issue the order immediately."

"Yes!"

----

It is winter in the southern hemisphere in May, but the Mauritius Islands, located in tropical waters, have a pleasant climate and pleasant scenery.

But now, no one at the three airports in Mauritius, Reunion Island, and Rodrigues Island, the closest to Diego Garcia Island, has the heart to appreciate all this...

Although the three island airports are packed with as many as 120 aircraft, theoretically they are absolutely superior to the Zeppelin, which currently has only about aircraft. However, the locations of the three islands are very scattered.

If the distance between Reunion Island in the southwest and Mauritius Island in the middle is about 230 kilometers, which can be regarded as mutual support and protection, then the Rodrigues Island Airport, which is a full kilometers northeast of Mauritius, can definitely be said to be isolated and helpless.

Besides, this is just a small airport near the coast.

Although the twenty or thirty fighter jets at the airport are also a force that cannot be underestimated...

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

"Report! Their air raid is coming again!"

"...Damn it, these flies won't stop until they annoy us to death." Bangtai was very depressed and a little crazy, and shouted to Zeppelin: "Zeppelin, find Bismarck and ask for cover. Our ship will turn to sail against the wind, and the waiting team will take off immediately!"

"Yes!" Zeppelin responded, gnashing her teeth as she connected to the mobile WIFI. Soon, after getting approval, she began to accelerate and turn. She slowly turned from the south-southwest to the east against the wind, and accelerated to a speed of 25 knots, and began to release her on-duty fighter.

However, all these acceleration and turning back and forth came at the expense of her limited remaining fuel.

In the Bismarck's bridge command post, the Persian cat who had just turned off the WIFI also looked indignant:

"Captain, these British planes are so annoying. They come to harass us every now and then. We have clearly changed our course to avoid those islands by more than 600 kilometers..."

"Yes, it is a big problem. They have come here three times in four hours..." Looking at the Zeppelin that was turning into the headwind and preparing to take off the fighter, Lütjens was a little gloomy.

Compared to Bismarck, who only thought the harassment was annoying, Lütjens saw something deeper:

The British must have conducted quite in-depth research on Zeppelin's combat effectiveness.

Each time, there were about 20 to 30 British planes in total - although it didn't seem like a lot, it was just so large that a patrol squadron in the sky couldn't intercept them. Each time, a group of standby fighters had to be urgently launched from the runway on the flight deck, plus the anti-aircraft firepower of several ship girls, to barely ensure a successful interception.

Although the Zeppelin could theoretically launch more than 40 or 50 aircraft at a time, these aircraft would have to wait four or five hours after landing before they could be deployed again. Obviously, the full-deck attack mode could not provide a stable attendance capability.

Under the current circumstances, in order to ensure that there are always planes on duty in the sky, Zeppelin can only adopt the method of optimizing combat patrol deployment - keep one squadron of patrol fighters in the sky, another squadron on standby on the runway at all times, and another squadron making combat readiness preparations in the emergency area on the side of the rear deck - once there is a situation where two squadrons of fighters can't hold on, these aircraft on maintenance will be dispatched one by one.

After all, the air force is fast and has strong assault capabilities. Defense is often a matter of probability. Even the fighter jets with the highest interception efficiency will still have a certain chance of being breached. And there are only two transport ships on our side. No matter which one is bombed, the consequences will be catastrophic.

The British had a fleet of 20 to 30 aircraft each time, so their penetration capability was not low.

And, there is another problem...

If an aircraft carrier wants to launch an aircraft, it must sail against the wind at a speed of more than 25 knots to accumulate enough deck wind speed for the aircraft to take off. Then, in order to prevent any accidents during the release of Zeppelin, the wheel formation formed by Bismarck, Tirpitz and Eugen, which guarded the middle transport ship, must be disbanded - at least one ship must be drawn to follow Zeppelin to ensure that there will be no accidents when she releases the aircraft. The remaining two ships must also change their positions to ensure the safety of the two protected transport ships in the face of air strikes - it was during this constant maneuvering that precious fuel and equally precious aircraft spare parts were consumed one ton at a time, one piece at a time.

In fact, among the sisters, Eugen's endurance was the weakest. So in fact, Bismarck and Tirpitz took turns to cover Zeppelin's planes every time. And this time, it was Bismarck, the flagship, who took the turn.

Fortunately, we have been together for a long time, and there is WIFI between the ship girls, so we can conduct C4ISR-style command. There is no problem with the tacit cooperation in combat, and there will be no impact due to Bismarck leaving the position...

Another thing that made Bismarck and Lütjens feel somewhat fortunate was that, whether evacuating from Socotra or in Diego Garcia, the Zeppelin ground crew had already completely plundered all the spare parts and even raw materials that could be used in the garrison. In addition, there was a small processing plant on the Zeppelin, so the problem of some small parts was not a big deal.

The real problem is fuel.

The endurance of a battleship is inversely proportional to the cube of the speed. The endurance of Bismarck and Tirpitz is 7300 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 16 knots with a full fuel load of 9300 tons, and an average fuel consumption of 300 tons per day, which can last for three weeks. But if it is a combat cruise at 24 knots, the endurance is only 6640 nautical miles, and the average daily fuel consumption reaches 625 tons-less than 12 days of continuous sailing. At a combat speed of 28 knots, it is only 4500 nautical miles/day, consuming 1100 tons of fuel/six and a half days of continuous sailing. As for full speed, the endurance is even shorter-less than 3700 nautical miles/daily fuel consumption of 1350 tons, and the continuous sailing time is less than five and a half days.

And these are just Bismarck and Grapes. As for the other two: they need to consider aircraft retraction and deployment, which means they have to accelerate to 80 or knots from time to time, and the Zeppelin only has % of its fuel now; and although the tonnage is small and the fuel consumption is low, the Eugen only has a fuel carrying capacity of more than tons. Its endurance is even lower than that of the cat and mouse sisters. After running about nautical miles, the fuel will be almost exhausted.

But now...

The British obviously realized this, and their harassing air strikes continued without stopping and without end.

In order to deal with these uninvited guests who visited every one or two hours on average, the German fleet could only maintain combat readiness, that is, the pressure of the boilers must be guaranteed to be able to accelerate to combat speed at any time - in order to ensure acceleration, a considerable volume and pressure of steam must be stored in the boiler pipelines. And to maintain these pressures, the fuel consumption far exceeds the normal cruising speed. Although the speed is only 16 knots, the fuel consumption has always been kept below the consumption rate of 24 knots.

You have to know that the fuel that can travel more than 9,000 nautical miles in three weeks at 16 knots is only enough to travel more than 6,000 nautical miles in ten days at 24 knots - and this is destined to cause the ship to run anchor in the Atlantic Ocean due to lack of fuel.

Moreover, the enemy's air strikes came one after another, and the two merchant ships on our side were also in great danger. Although our evasive route was more than 600 kilometers away from Rodrigues Island, in front of Blenheim and the handsome warriors, this distance was far from safe.

If we continue to evade further to the east, the circle of the route will be larger. The long march here is completely at its limit. Now the fuel is counted by the drops, so there is no reason to continue to detour. Not to mention, with Blenheim's combat radius, it is not safe within 1,000 kilometers or even 1,200 kilometers.

Even if we continue to go around, it will take a day to travel 600 nautical miles. How many times will they be bombed in a day? How low is the probability that the two transport ships will not be hit? Just think about it and you will know that this is not realistic.

Not to mention, the endless air strikes consumed the anti-aircraft ammunition, which had basically no replenishment...

Following behind Zeppelin, watching the planes taking off one after another on the flight deck of Zeppelin in front of him, Lütjens's brows would relax every time he saw this scene, but this time, until all the planes were launched, Lütjens's brows were still furrowed, and the furrows could be tied into knots...

"Bismarck, tell Zeppelin to turn together and return to the formation."

"Ok."

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

Seven or eight bombers that broke through the fighter interception rushed to the right front side of Tirpitz that was blocking the transport ship - as long as they broke through this evil warship, they could directly bomb the transport ship.

"Tsk... Grape, the anti-aircraft guns are ready to fire." Lindeman put down the telescope and patted the pink-haired girl huddled behind him - at this critical moment, of course he would call on her to take over the shooting.

Normally, this girl is a lazy homebody. If she doesn't pat her, feed her, or hold her up high, she basically doesn't care about anything. But this time, Lindeman, who keeps a hamster, was slapped on the back of his hand by his pet hamster...

This ball of pink hair completely exploded:

"You annoying flies! They're so annoying! Come down now!"

The bored Tirpitz stared fiercely at the fleet of live targets coming from different directions, and mobilized all her firepower - in addition to the 105mm anti-aircraft guns, even the 380mm main guns began to turn. In the calm eyes of the sailors who were already used to it and even felt some pity for the British pilots on the opposite side, the eight SKC34/380 main guns automatically loaded 380mm high-explosive shells and turned to the position of a small group of "flies".

"If I say you can't get to the side of the transport ship, then forget about it."

The hamster, who was annoyed by the annoying flies, was really angry and his eyes were locked on the bomber on the opposite side. Then, after a loud bang, he ate chicken in the evening...

Without waiting for Lindemann to turn around and look at him, with a look of surprise and confusion on his face, the little hamster, curled up in the pillow with puffy cheeks, seemed to be still a little unsatisfied, and directly stretched out his elbow to nudge Lindemann who was sitting behind him, and even turned around, staring at his captain with a fierce look on his face, gritting his teeth and said:

"Well... Lindemann, I want to bomb their airport."

"Huh? You actually have the idea of ​​taking the initiative?"

Looking at the hamster who actually wanted to take the initiative to cause trouble, Lindman blinked in daze, feeling very surprised.

Did the sun rise from the west today?

Chapter 657: Why Bei Zhai can’t be a technical nerd

The sun was setting over the Indian Ocean. Above the blood-stained clouds, twos and threes of British bombers were leaving sparse black smoke. They were swaying, even stumbling, and under the bleak sunset, as if with a hint of repressed emotion, they were flying farther and farther in the direction of Rodrigues Island in the east...

The easterly winds in the South Equatorial Trade Wind Belt remain unchanged for thousands of years. Unfortunately, Rodrigues Island is just to the west of Lütjens.

Although a plane returning home with a tailwind can theoretically increase its speed with the help of the wind, another consequence of this tailwind is that the lift that the wings can provide is greatly reduced.

Especially these planes had been badly damaged when they attacked those damn German warships before. Many of them had wing damage that caused uneven lift on both wings, or tail damage that caused problems with heading control.

And here, we are not even halfway to the return flight distance to the airport on Rodrigues Island.

The already exhausted British pilots had to hold on to the joysticks with all their strength, which became more difficult to operate due to the damage to the aircraft structure, and fly their aircraft more carefully, while gritting their teeth, weakly venting and cursing, cursing everything they didn't like on the short-wave tactical radio to vent their depression and resentment...

"…I'm so tired. How long will it take to get to the airport?"

"It's still early. We are still more than 200 nautical miles away from the base. We have only flown 40 percent of the way."

"MD, those evil spirits are really perverted..."

"Yeah, it seems like we're the only ones in the Second Squadron who can come back alive. Even the captain died in the battle..."

"You know what? They have an evil battleship and several attack groups haven't seen it... Do you think the Germans will come over to attack at night?"