Bismarck

Even though he was 43 years old, had never won a battle in his 25 years in the army, and had made several mistakes, he could still despise those guys who "have nothing but hard work."

"Don't look down on the young because they are poor. I was born at the end. What do you have? You have nothing!"

However, although he was born into a noble family, held a high position and had connections, he even had the power to command the Allied coastal airport in Morocco, North Africa, across the Strait of Gibraltar.

The speed of those old warships and light aircraft carriers of the Mediterranean Fleet was too slow. In addition, as the Governor of Gibraltar had the responsibility to defend the territory, he could only defend - or wait for Lütjens to come to him!

However, not only did Lütjens not follow his baton, but after crazy prediction, he actually found his own flaw!

"Help...help!"

"That's... the Edelweiss Witch! And Buckhorn! The Aid Devil! Red Thirteen... Run! Run!!"

"Where are the fighters? Where are our fighters? Where is the fighter squadron?! Answer me! Answer me!"

"Report to the headquarters, fighters... our fighters have been scattered..."

In the sky, Zeppelin beat the British army into a panic, while in the command center, Mountbatten clenched his fists and trembled with anger.

However, this is not the end!

The aircraft group that planned to attack the German fleet was shattered by the trail of jet smoke before it could be assembled; the fleet assembled at sea looked up at the sky and was unable to move forward or backward when it caught up with the joint attack of bombers and missile groups. Under Zeppelin's personal guidance, the air strike of 15 air-to-ship guided bombs and 28 anti-ship missiles directly achieved a near 100% hit rate. The Allied fleet, which only had radar-guided close-in defense guns and whose shooting accuracy and reaction speed basically depended on human control, was blown to pieces on the spot!

The cruise speed was faster, so in front of the 1 V- anti-ship missiles that came first, the ten fragile destroyers and four light cruisers were killed or injured on the spot. After the outer air defense circle was blown up by the cruise missiles, fifteen carrier-based jet bombers rushed in, using the air-to-ship missiles with greater explosives and greater penetration mounted on their bellies, relying on the characteristics of the ship mother's guidance that ignored interference, and named the remaining four old battleships of the United States and Free France one by one!

Old battleships are already clumsy, and their only radar-guided close-in weapon systems are manually operated. How can they deal with anti-ship missiles?

Even though they were able to avoid death on the spot due to their thick skin and strong bodies, they had basically lost their combat effectiveness and staggered into Gibraltar.

Within just seven minutes of the start at 8:00 a.m. on August 30th, a wave of joint sea and air strikes, led by Zeppelin himself and led by a fleet of aircraft, launched a round of preemptive counterattacks that ignored defense, guaranteed critical hits, and could not be resisted!

Thirty-two fighters were lost, twenty-eight bombers were lost, and the surface ship detachment of the Mediterranean Fleet guarding the exit of the Strait collectively lost its combat effectiveness - although he now has at least one and a half bomber squadrons with more than seventy heavy bombers and one hundred and eighty fighters and carrier-based aircraft, and although the strength of the four giant-class light carriers and eight destroyers of the Mediterranean Fleet's aircraft carrier squadron has not been damaged, their speed is only a cricket of twenty-five knots, and they can't do anything to Lütjens who is avoiding at full speed!

And all the confirmed "results" in the air battles can't even be counted on the fingertips of a hand!

Looking at the heavy losses in the battle, his heart was bleeding, but he had no way out now!

Even though the surface fleet managed to fire all 1 V--imitating "Villain" anti-ship missiles in the predetermined direction before the airstrike, everyone knew that without air force guidance and synchronized attack coordination near the missile's maximum range, it would be difficult to defeat the evil spirit fleet with its anti-aircraft missiles blessed by the ship girls with anti-ship missiles relying solely on anti-ship missiles.

You know, with the Edelweiss Witch personally leading the charge and having jet fighters and anti-aircraft missiles to suppress the generation gap in weapons, if you can't gather a huge amount of troops at once to launch a multi-faceted attack, it would basically be tantamount to sending yourself to die in vain!

Just like what these nobles said when they were triumphantly attacking those hardworking believers, what's the use of just working hard? No matter how hard you work, if you can't get in, it's still not as good as the gift of God.

However, Mountbatten could only look at the German Zeppelin, who had made great achievements in the war, and think about the three sister aircraft carriers in the hands of the American ally next door. All he could feel was that "his efforts could not defeat fate": God had pity on the British Empire, which did not even have a plug-in that could control the sky...

The so-called retribution in this life is probably nothing more than a slap in the face like this, right?

Of course, as a high-ranking member of society who only cares about food and not punishment, this man would certainly not deliberately think about whether he had done things like taking advantage of his good background to step on others to climb the Internet.

"Don't look down on the young because they are poor. I was born at the end. What do you have? You have nothing!"

However, now it is Lütjens who has the ship girl, while he is the one who has nothing!

Once one’s background and connections are of no use, one’s absolute disadvantage in ability will be exposed on the spot!

The Mediterranean Fleet was crippled in the blink of an eye.

Now, all he could do was to grit his teeth and swallow his anger to clean up the mess, and weakly wave his hands and give orders to his speechless and even terrified subordinates:

"Send a telegram to Cunningham. The Mediterranean Fleet has been badly damaged. Request urgent tactical guidance..."

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

"Mountbatten is really giving me problems..." Cunningham curled his lips in silence and handed the telegram to his secretary: "This is really unfortunate news. The Mediterranean Fleet's surface ship brigade was directly defeated by the Edelweiss Witch as soon as it went into battle..."

"I always feel that this guy is really like a dog. You see, he never loses when it comes to talking, but he never wins when he really fights. Moreover, he is also good at destroying people's homes and making trouble..." After scanning the telegram at a glance, Yan Zhan threw the telegram into the hands of Qianwei and started to complain bluntly.

"Hey, you know what, he really does look a bit like me!" Cunningham held up the teacup with one hand and put the other on his waist, took a sip of the tea, and while sizing up the situation, he praised his wife: "I'm good at diplomacy, management, and administration, but forget about fighting."

"So it is better for children of noble families like these to follow in their father's footsteps and engage in politics. The world of fame and fortune is at least not as brutal as fighting on the battlefield - look at him, wasn't it just a failed air raid and the loss of a few destroyers? The opponents were Lütjens and his men. They couldn't even afford such a small loss in front of Lütjens, and no one else could be scared like this." War-weary curled his lips with a look of disdain.

"I can't help it. You know his background well. I really have to help your husband. Otherwise, if he can't make it, I will have to step down and retire. I can't support a wife worth 30,000 tons with just that little pension~"

"You deserve a beating, don't you? Be careful or I'll turn you into a museum and ignore you!"

"Ouch, it hurts, be gentle..."

"..."

Avant-garde said that the virtues of a royal knight are not to gossip about others or pry into their privacy, but his ears unconsciously stood up higher than a cat's.

"But... what should we do now?" Faced with a powerful enemy and a serious situation, War-weary finally stood up and forcibly changed the topic from being off track: "The four light carriers in his hands are still behind the Gibraltar Fortress. Although they have escaped this round of attack, with the speed of the Giant, it will take at least ten o'clock for them to sail out of the Strait of Gibraltar... Isn't that a little too late?"

While expressing his own opinions, he pointed at the nautical chart with a pointer and made some notes. It has always been a difficult problem that the speed of the giant light carriers of the Mediterranean Fleet cannot keep up with the pace of combat.

A speed of five knots means a difference of more than nine kilometers in an hour, and Lütjens is not a fool. He can drive away, but it is impossible for him to chase.

Moreover, the current situation is that the main force of the Atlantic Fleet and the light carriers of the Mediterranean Fleet are divided into two groups, one in the south and one in the east, and the distance between them is a little far - Vanguard measured it on the chart table and it was 840 kilometers!

Although theoretically the Lütjens fleet was located near the west of Cape St. Vincent, it was a situation of being divided and attacked. However, Cunningham and the Mediterranean Fleet's light aircraft carriers were far away and slow, and the situation was actually very dangerous. If one was not careful, it would be difficult for Cunningham to divide and attack the bandit Lütjens, or for the British army to be defeated one by one and the Germans to turn the tables... but no one could say for sure!

However, Cunningham was straightforward about this as usual...

"It's late, but this is all we can do now. If we don't quickly join them, we will be defeated one by one... Besides, their airstrike just ended, and they won't be able to send out another group of aircraft until at least 11 o'clock, so we still have time to do it."

"What about now..." War-weary and Vanguard looked at each other and asked at the same time.

"The wind here is from the north. Lütjens needs to take off and land planes and fight southwards, so he can only run back and forth at Cape St. Vincent. So we just need to ensure that our fleet and the light carriers of the Mediterranean Fleet can launch a 'divide and conquer' attack. Go, tell Mountbatten to let his light carriers attack Cape St. Vincent at full speed, and our two fleets will attack Lütjens together!"

War-weary nodded in understanding: "Yes, sir!"

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

One after another, the returning fighter planes landed on the angled flight deck of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, which was surrounded by stars. The news of the victory of severely damaging the enemy's "Gibraltar Fortress Garrison Fleet" had been sent back via radio waves before.

However, out of sight of the jubilant ground crew, whether it was Zeppelin and Bonte, or Bismarck and Lütjens, the expressions on their faces were not very good after receiving detailed reports of the battle.

Bangtai now had a stern face: "Zeppelin, are you sure that the fleet you destroyed only had four old battleships?"

Zeppelin, who also looked unhappy, shook his head: "Yes, Captain, there are only four old battleships and several cruisers and destroyers... The reconnaissance planes have searched the sea in this area before, but did not see any trace of their light aircraft carriers. I estimate that their aircraft carriers are likely hiding behind the Gibraltar Fortress, but that place is beyond the combat radius of our aircraft..."

Bangtai touched his nose, feeling a little depressed.

He could imagine that if he had a gloomy face, when the battle report was sent to the flagship, Commander Lütjens's face would definitely not be much paler than his.

Jet propellers are good in every way except for their fuel consumption which is really a problem!

Although the first round of fighting was a clean one-to-zero, the overall combat effectiveness did not improve significantly. After all, most of the ships sunk or damaged were destroyers or light cruisers, and the four battleships were old ships - except for the anti-ship missiles they carried and their toughness, they were basically useless!

The number of long-range anti-ship missiles is limited, the search range is limited, the attack method is rigid, and even reconnaissance aircraft are still needed to search for and even track targets!

So although the range of anti-ship missiles can compete with that of aircraft carriers, the key to mobile operations is ultimately the enemy's aircraft carriers.

Even though the carrier-based aircraft of British and American aircraft carriers cannot compete with their own jet aircraft, the numerical advantage and range advantage of the base aviation forces, as well as their more flexible combat use and repeated deployment capabilities compared to anti-ship missiles, etc., are all greater threats than the extremely rigid anti-ship missiles.

The intelligence from spies before said that the garrison fleet of Gibraltar Fortress includes four Giant-class light carriers. Then there is Cunningham's main fleet - including the last two remaining Vengeance or (slightly improved after the Vengeance) Dreadnought-class carriers, and an American Independence-class high-speed light carrier.

Therefore, these aircraft carriers are actually the force that poses the greatest threat.

But the question now is - where are the enemy aircraft carriers? !

Bangtai still remembered the reconnaissance at dawn. At six o'clock in the morning, two reconnaissance planes in the south were shot down - but there was no more accurate positioning! And now, the four light carriers of the Gibraltar garrison fleet are also elusive!

The twelve reconnaissance planes were all on the Zeppelin, but a large number of fighter planes had just returned and landed, filling up the flight deck. On the other side, the Gneisenau had only four reconnaissance planes that had just been received at eight o'clock. In an hour, it was impossible to let the reconnaissance planes take off again for reconnaissance.

Not to mention, the reconnaissance plane had been shot down once before - the enemy had two ship girls, and with defense and guidance, the fighter jets with a small speed difference could have taken position in advance to intercept the BF-109G12 reconnaissance plane which also had a propeller!

If there is no reconnaissance plane, it would be like a blind man fighting against a normal person!

It takes half an hour for an anti-ship missile to fly 370km, and the search range of the missile-borne radar is very limited! Even if the anti-ship missiles operated by the ship girls have used passive methods to attack the opponent, that is only a passive monitoring distance of ten kilometers.

If there is no accurate positioning and monitoring, the missile will be wasted in the water!

Not to mention that it was the third GIUK naval battle ten months ago! And that was also the first time that Britain and the United States encountered long-range heavy anti-ship missiles, and this effect only occurred when they were not familiar with them.

Now you want to do it again? Haha!

Bonte, who was holding the tactical radio and reporting the situation, looked unhappy. Just imagine that Commander Lütjens, who was answering the phone, must have a face as dark as an African. Looking at this situation, Zeppelin thought for a moment and gritted his teeth:

"Captain, ask the commander which direction I need to conduct additional reconnaissance. As long as I find a fighter jet with a fuel tank, I can go out and search in a fan-shaped radius of 600 kilometers!"

(PS: If you don't count the Icelandic naval battle, there were five naval battles in the GIUK waterway in the book. The first one was in November 40 when Lütjens led Grape and 11 to disrupt the trade, the second was the Persian Cat single-ship Rhine exercise, the third was when Top beat the deputy captain and led the Prinz Eugen to overthrow the Atlantic Fleet battleship division and kill Wilcox before going to the Indian Ocean to join everyone, the fourth was the final breakout stage of the Great Breakout, and the fifth was in October 780 when the Evil Spirit Fleet collectively advanced to the Atlantic and settled in Brest.)

Chapter 877

On the crowded flight deck, the side catapult on the angled deck is the only place where jet carrier-based aircraft can be launched in an emergency.

As for the remaining six BF-109G12 propeller reconnaissance aircraft? They were not strong enough to use catapults. Moreover, the angled deck that had been initially cleared was fast enough for them to take off freely at a speed of knots.

However, it is still very dangerous to let the propeller reconnaissance aircraft forcibly detect the British fleet in broad daylight - whether it is the light aircraft carrier of the garrison fleet under the cover of the Gibraltar Fortress and the North African airport, or the British and American main fleets with two ship girls who can provide powerful air defense guidance. For a propeller reconnaissance aircraft with a maximum speed of only 660KM/H, it is like entering a dragon's den and a tiger's lair alone!

But even so, we have to go out now.

It only takes half an hour for an anti-ship missile to fly 200 nautical miles, so there is no more time to waste! Not to mention, according to intelligence, the British fleet on the other side includes five battleships, two aircraft carriers and one light carrier. In addition, there are two Surrey-class missile heavy cruisers that have been modified to completely abandon artillery warfare and focus on air defense and long-range anti-ship missiles. The long-range anti-ship missiles have reached 40 rounds! Together with the destroyers, the missiles have reached 300!

We must find Cunningham as soon as possible! Otherwise, with the opponent's attack power and the firepower guidance of the ship girl, the consequences will be disastrous!

"Two planes in a group, plus my plane, take care of four directions in total: Squadron One goes to Gibraltar to find their light carrier; Squadrons Two and Three form a reconnaissance fan with me on the left and right sides of my plane's course to search for the British enemy's main fleet! Set off now!!"

Following Zeppelin's order, three reconnaissance teams of six reconnaissance planes took off from the nearly 1300-meter-long angled deck of the aircraft carrier in less than three and a half minutes. In these short three and a half minutes, the steam pipes of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, which had restored a trace of steam pressure as much as possible, also exerted the last bit of pressure to throw the aircraft carrier's will, which was equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks and had a range of 3.8 kilometers, but its weight had also increased to tons, out of the catapult rail. Then, the Edelweiss fighter, under a parabolic curve of the fuselage after leaving the deck, which was very close to the curve of the crash, flew towards the sunny battlefield, close to the still magnificent sea.

Even if the Gibraltar Fortress garrison fleet on the side was prepared, at least one of the two reconnaissance planes could sound an alarm for her. As for the British main fleet in front, it would be fine if it retreated, but if it did not, it would inevitably move to the position predicted by her, Captain Bonte, and Commander Lütjens - this position was 600 kilometers south of them!

In other words, as long as the British dare to come, she will be able to find the target at the first time!

She is still very confident in her investigative abilities.

After all, as long as she is driving, it is the Edelweiss early warning and command fighter!

only……

"Speaking of which, Captain, what if Cunningham chooses to just run away instead of coming?"

Looking at the automatic battlefield situation plotter controlled by the first generation digital computer on the large glass wall in front of the C4ISR command center, the Persian cat, with his lips pursed and his head tilted, resting his chin on his fingertips, shook his ears slightly and asked with some confusion.

"The British will definitely come!" Lütjens' expression was still solemn, silently paying attention to his own fleet which was slowly turning to the southwest on the automatic plotter. If Cunningham went north, he could engage in battle with the enemy at the first opportunity, and just happen to stay out of the attack range of the Gibraltar garrison fleet. Without even a second thought, he gave a very definite and affirmative answer to this question from his own fleet cat.

"If he doesn't come, it means he has sold the Gibraltar Fortress and the remnants of the garrison fleet to us! Besides, is it so easy to talk to the Royal Navy's hundreds of years of tradition of fighting the enemy?"

"The only thing that's unclear now is where Cunningham is - will he attack us directly from both sides, or will he first get together with the fortress garrison fleet and then attack us together... Although we can deal with both if we head southwest, we still have to be careful..."

Lütjens glanced at the chart again, raised his head and looked out the porthole, gazing at the clear southern sky with a determined, confident, and cautious look:

On the chart table, the arc marked on Cunningham's predicted position heading north was more than 250 kilometers wide!

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

The strategy of using two reconnaissance aircraft to conduct joint reconnaissance finally worked.

Although the vanguard, who had been paying attention to the airspace, immediately guided the British patrol fighter to shoot down one of the reconnaissance planes, the second reconnaissance plane, which had long been prepared for sacrifice, fled in a panic and sent out intelligence about the engagement with the enemy! Then, the Zeppelin on the left wing of the reconnaissance plane, in a rage, shot down four Spitfires in one fell swoop, and also confirmed the position of the British army!

"Cunningham's location is actually at the westernmost end of our predicted line?!"

Lütjens was a little surprised when he saw the hands of the clock on the wall. He had originally predicted that Cunningham's position would be closer to the direction of the Gibraltar Fortress.

At 9:40, the reconnaissance plane had already sent back the whereabouts of the British fleet at the exit of the Strait of Gibraltar - it was just over 400 kilometers away from him, and was following him all the way westward. It seemed that it wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to fish?

In such an obvious situation of being attacked from both sides, Cunningham actually didn't try to reunite?

I wonder if that old guy has some ideas?

For example, if the game starts out in a favorable way, you can advance and retreat two men, and even if you lose, you can just escape into the depths of the ocean to escape pursuit.

"Forget it, it doesn't make much difference to me anyway..." Lütjens twisted his chin and decided not to think about it until he figured it out. After all, the best solution to this kind of thing is to fight first and talk later!

But the problem is...

"Captain, we are going to Gibraltar to search for the garrison fleet. The reconnaissance aircraft reported that British and American airfields are gathering bombers!"

"What? Their land airports are gathering bombers?!"

"Yes... The reconnaissance plane said that they have been chased and hunted by the British and American warships. Whether they can come back depends on God's blessing..." Bismarck's

Secretary Cat's reminder made Lütjens feel furious and overwhelmed on the spot.

What the hell...

"Order the fleet to turn west. The two aircraft carriers must be ready to attack before 11 o'clock. All personnel must be ready to fight! Keep a distance from the light carrier in Gibraltar and find a way to destroy Cunningham first!"

Lütjens, who was in a somewhat depressed mood, ordered the fleet to turn and prepare for battle, while at the same time he looked at the triangle situation that had gradually formed on the nautical chart, and continued to calculate the next step of the battle in his mind.

My position: 300 degrees west-northwest of Cape St. Vincent, 150 kilometers away, and I am sailing westward at a full speed of 210 knots; 500 degrees southwest of me, 400 kilometers away, is the Cunningham fleet, which is sailing at a maximum formation speed of knots, heading towards me at full speed against the Azores Warm Current, and can take off carrier-based aircraft at any time, with nearly carrier-based aircraft and more than anti-ship missiles; in addition, slightly south of me, in a straight line with Cape St. Vincent, kilometers away, the four light carriers and eight destroyers of the Gibraltar garrison fleet are also trying their best to catch up with me at a speed of knots - and because of their position and strike range, if I continue to head southwest, it is possible that while fighting with Cunningham, I will also be stabbed in the back from Gibraltar!

Not to mention, the air forces at the Gibraltar Fortress and the North African airport are also gathering their fleets!

Although I am not afraid of any of them in a head-on battle, if two of them attack me together, I will probably be in great danger!