Bismarck

After all, jets hitting propellers is basically a massacre! Even if it can't completely destroy the Allied fleet, it can greatly reduce the threat from the Gibraltar Fortress and the North African airport group!

Looking at his anxious wife and Vanguard, Cunningham looked up at the clock: 4pm…

In another five hours, it will be dark - they are old rivals, and everyone knows what kind of command ability Zeppelin has?

Even as a high-ranking Allied officer, he knew that in order to strengthen the command of air combat at sea, Britain and the United States had cooperated and secretly installed search radars mounted on disc antennas on modified heavy bombers. However, due to the limitations of radar performance, equipment processing speed, and even the number of crew members, no one dared to guarantee whether this "air radar station" could distinguish enemy and friendly targets in real time and achieve rapid command like the ship girls, or even have the command efficiency to clearly distinguish each group of aircraft...

Once the air force in the Gibraltar-North Africa direction is severely damaged, it will be difficult for the British fleet to turn the tables! Even if there is still a powerful paper firepower of 320 anti-ship missiles, the flexibility and firepower sustainability of anti-ship missiles cannot be compared with the anti-ship missiles of the air strike group!

"We can't go on like this. They have too much advantage in night battles. There are also German submarines in this area. The destroyer has reported more than a dozen times since noon... Now it seems that if we can't resolve the battle before dark, we will lose..." Cunningham pondered for a while and soon made a decision: "Since we can only attack, then let's fight - we are now about 430 kilometers southwest of Cape St. Vincent. If we turn northeast, we will not be within the range of the German anti-ship missiles for at least half an hour. In addition, the wind direction is northerly now, and Lütjens is in our northeast corner, so we can let our surface fleet and aircraft carrier act separately. The battle fleet can block the front of the aircraft carrier and act as SAR (vanguard surface fleet), or it can independently launch missile attacks under the cover of the aircraft carrier group... What do you think?"

Warspite and Vanguard looked at the map, then looked at each other and nodded to indicate that they had no objection.

"That's it! Order: The fleet turns, and the battle fleet and aircraft carriers are separated: the battleships advance to Cape St. Vincent, the aircraft carriers head north, and prepare to take off the strike group!"

"SIR, YES SIR!" After hearing Cunningham's order, the two ship girls stood at attention in unison, saluted meticulously, and then turned around and retreated to carry out their mission - one went to find the communications squad, and the other went to find the staff department.

Soon, nearly forty warships from the United States, Britain and France were divided into two formations in an orderly manner: one formation was twelve destroyers in a wheel-shaped formation with two Glory ships, one Independence and three aircraft carriers guarding in the middle; the other formation was the flagship Warspite, the new battleships Lion, Brutal, and Vanguard, as well as the Free France battleship Richelieu, and two Surrey-class heavy cruisers that were modified to carry forty anti-ship missiles, arranged in a row in the left echelon. Under the guidance of eight destroyers covering the left and right wings, and four destroyers and four light cruisers arranged in a single horizontal formation suitable for searching in the front, they headed towards the windward direction to the north and Cape St. Vincent to the northeast, with murderous intent.

However, there is a saying: soap makes people...

Just a quarter of an hour later, the bitterly anti-Warren and the solemn-looking Vanguard once again stood side by side in front of Cunningham, who was also furious, and pointed and cursed at a "newly appeared" enemy plane on the nautical chart.

"It's a hundred miles away, right in front of us! This damn Edelweiss Witch is haunting us!"

"We are now attacking in their direction. Their anti-aircraft missiles have a range advantage. In addition, we cannot directly locate them now... Do you think she is here to guide and locate the missile strike?!"

"It's possible! Maybe that old devil Lütjens has anticipated our move... Should we turn around and hide first?"

"What about our carrier-based aircraft? If we turn, the strike aircraft group won't be able to take off! We have just taken off the carrier battle, and the flying dragons and dive bombers are still on the deck and haven't taken off yet. But if we don't turn, what if they launch a round of anti-aircraft missiles..."

"Don't mention it. We still have to get the fighter planes to evade us. These F4Us and F6Fs can't even defeat the Spitfire . They'll die if they run into the Edelweiss Witch!"

"But if that's the case, the air raid will be delayed for several hours..."

"But...what if they are using the empty city strategy?"

"It's hard to say! You know, the most effective way to fight against anti-ship missiles is to move sideways. But the attack direction of the North African airport and Gibraltar is to the east. If they move sideways, they will come right at us..."

"Let's hide for a while... Fortunately, the aircraft carrier formation hasn't gone far yet. Order the aircraft carrier formation to abandon the takeoff group and retreat to the southeast after reuniting with us." After a round of discussions, Cunningham wisely chose to follow his heart.

"Back then, Jericho was the man who could 'lose the entire war in one afternoon'. Now it's my turn..."

A moment later, on the bridge of the battleship HMS Warspite, which was gradually turning, Cunningham walked out of the command post, smoking a pipe with a melancholy look on his face. He leaned against the railing in front of him, like a salted fish, and daydreamed silently, enjoying the salty sea breeze as the sun gradually set in the west.

……………………And on the other side of the sea……………………

Mountbatten at the Gibraltar Fortress had already anticipated that the submarine would lose contact with the evil spirit fleet.

After all, it was a large air force base, and during the Torch Project, it had accommodated at most 14 fighter squadrons and 160 aircraft at the same time. Although only one reinforced squadron of Mosquitoes and Lancasters had transferred to the Mediterranean, this could ensure that there would be no gaps in the sky for reconnaissance aircraft. With the high speed of over 600 kilometers and the search radius of 50 to 60 kilometers of the dedicated surface search radar, the Mosquito reconnaissance aircraft still issued a report "At 4:30 pm, the German fleet has turned around Cape St. Vincent" before being shot down by the German patrol fighter commanded by Bonte.

However, as a result, Cunningham, who had just reunited with the aircraft carrier and turned around to evade it less than twenty minutes ago, instantly turned darker than the bottom of a pot!

"We've been fooled! Zeppelin's plan is really an empty city plan! He scared us away and held back the dozens of fighter planes we just took off. Now he's turned around Cape St. Vincent, and the four battleships of the Mediterranean Fleet at the mouth of the strait are in danger!"

The old marshal's face no longer had the leisurely and decadent look on it. Instead, veins popped out and he was gritting his teeth.

But looking at the sound and shadow of the hair dryer swaying constantly above my head, I had to endure the arrogant contempt of the Edelweiss Witch.

According to the pilots who were on high alert in the sky, the Edelweiss Witch not only took advantage of its high speed to completely ignore them, but also shook its wings from time to time, as if it was pointing the finger at the British pilots.

The fleet fighters that had just taken off were originally just risking their lives to distract the attention of the German aircraft group so as to cover the bombers' assault and bombing. As a result, the empty city plan scared the aircraft group so much that only the fighters on the front half of the flight deck took off, and the bombers on the back half of the flight deck with bombs did not have time to take off. Even if they forced an assault now, they would die in vain due to the lack of cover - even the fastest Wayne "Flying Dragon" fighter-bomber was just an Italian-made flat DD in front of the TA-183.

If they wanted to launch another attack, they would have to gather another batch of fighters from the hangar. Not to mention the efficiency of the two elevators in the front and middle. Even if they were lifted up, they would have to be refueled and loaded. To prevent the hangar from exploding, the hangar could not be refueled or loaded. But this would take more than an hour. By then, even the flowers would be cold!

However, if the surface fleet were to rush forward and launch a missile attack, it would be very foolish, at least at this point in time - it would be impossible to change the enemy situation much in more than half an hour. The previous assault was met with a round of anti-ship missiles from Lütjens, so the consequence of the assault now would probably be the same.

Not to mention, Zeppelin was still leisurely flapping his wings and circling in the sky - the empty city plan of the Edelweiss Witch had disrupted the rhythm of the battle on her side! And she also killed two fighter planes on her side...

This is simply unbearable for my uncle and even more unbearable for my aunt!

However, at this moment, the combat rhythm of the entire formation was completely disrupted by the Empty City Strategy, and he was helpless.

In fact, this is the disadvantage of long-range anti-ship missiles - since their flexibility is far lower than that of aircraft, and they are consumable weapons that consume less with each shot, they must be launched after detecting and locating the enemy.

Moreover, this kind of positioning is not like an air strike, where intelligence from a few hours ago is also available, and at most the aircraft can search on its own. The radar field of an anti-ship missile is only so large, and if it is not real-time positioning, as long as the opponent has at least interference and maneuverable evasion, it will basically be impossible to hit the opponent.

Unfortunately, the evil fleet on the opposite side is exactly the great-grandmother of "long-range anti-ship missiles"...

Just as Cunningham was racking his brains to think of a countermeasure, a communications staff officer ran in and said, "Report, a call from Gibraltar, Lord Mountbatten has ordered the Gibraltar Fortress and the Mediterranean Fleet to launch a missile attack, and the remaining carrier-based aircraft on the four light aircraft carriers will follow up with the assault..."

After hearing the report below, Cunningham, War-weary, and Vanguard were all stunned:

"Mountbatten launched an attack? Who told him to attack at this time?"

"No, he can only attack now - the Germans are now in an upwind position. If we don't attack at this time, Lütjens' air raid will destroy a lot of our planes at the airport!"

"But... isn't this a tactic to disperse the troops and add fuel to the fire?"

"Chart table! Calculate our current situation immediately!"

Then the two men and their two boats gathered around the chart table.

After a few strokes, the predicted battlefield situation came to life on paper: Lütjens' fleet was near Cape St. Vincent, while his side was 400 kilometers southwest of Cape St. Vincent - theoretically, the range of anti-ship missiles was 370 kilometers, but because Zeppelin was always circling overhead, and the British fleet had to sail northwest in the opposite direction if it wanted to attack, it actually resulted in a situation where "the German fleet's missiles could threaten the British fleet's counter-attack, but the British fleet's missiles could not threaten the German fleet sailing eastward against the wind" - even if the battleship fleet did not retreat now, it would not be able to threaten Lütjens even if it charged forward for half an hour with its head held high!

There was only one reason: Cunningham's attack was a counter-attack, while Lütjens was a counter-attack! The difference between the two was at least a relative range difference of 60 kilometers!

What was even more frustrating for Cunningham, who had two ships at once, was that, precisely because of this relative range difference, if one really calculated it, even if they continued the assault for another half an hour, the range of the anti-ship missiles would only be able to reach the edge of Cape St. Vincent!

In particular, the problem of insufficient supplies at the Allied airports in North Africa may have been seen through by Lütjens!

Mountbatten's existing assault force is insufficient, Cunningham's combat rhythm is disrupted, and the American reinforcements will have to wait until five o'clock to prepare for takeoff, and it will be dark at nine o'clock. Although the waters of Cape St. Vincent are small, there are headwinds on the north and east sides, and the location is at the edge of the missile range. Together with the combat effectiveness of the four major ship girls of the Evil Spirit Fleet, it is enough to ensure that the Lütjens Fleet can use its internal advantage to jump back and forth between the Cunningham Fleet and the Gibraltar Fortress-North African Airport, which cannot form a pincer attack, and defeat them one by one!

As for me, a Zeppelin disrupted the rhythm of all my combat deployments, and I couldn't say a word!

Aircraft carrier operations are all about the deck operation cycle. Now that the rhythm is disrupted, it will take more than an hour or two to get it right!

"This damn Zeppelin, I&＃￥%&..."

Just as the three of them were staring at each other and cursing, the whistling wings of a missile cut through the sky on the other side, and the roar like thunder echoed in the sky.

On the decks of Gibraltar's thirty-two twin-mounted mobile launchers and four old American battleships that were badly damaged by anti-ship missile attacks but still capable of fighting after reloading anti-ship missile launch boxes, one hundred and sixty American "Villain" missiles, which were imitations of the V-1 Nemesis, followed the "last words" of the reconnaissance plane before it was shot down, and rode the strong lift formed by the high-speed airflow, and rushed one after another towards the direction of the German fleet at Cape St. Vincent.

Since there was no shortage of tungsten metal, they could use simple centrifugal turbojet engines, which allowed them to reach a higher speed of 840 km/h and a more powerful 454 kg gun. Although the range was not significantly improved, it was at least much stronger than the V-1 with a simpler "pulse (pulse) iron (compression) tube (compression)" engine.

It's a pity that on the opposite side of the torrential rain of missiles were Lütjens, Bonte, Top, and Voss, four people and four ships, who were staring at the screen, all smiling in unison.

Because there was no accurate guidance, this round of missiles were scattered again!

One hundred and sixty missiles is a lot, but to be careful of lateral evasion, you have to arrange a front of thirty kilometers. And there are also a number of missiles that obviously do not have radars turned on flying over land. It is obvious that they are waiting to turn on the radar after turning around Cape St. Vincent to search for the "evil fleet hiding behind the cliffs of the cape"!

However, Bismarck and electronics expert Tirpitz from later generations knew very well that as long as the radar did not have synthetic aperture imaging capability and an onboard computer, would you dare to turn on the radar of a missile flying over land? I'm afraid that any object with a little radar reflection could cause the missile to hit it directly!

Only missiles controlled by ship girls have a more flexible attack method - but the previous battle made it very clear: there were no ship girls in the Gibraltar Fortress and the garrison fleet!

In this way, the average density of missiles is less than three per kilometer, and the missiles on the left wing of the land obviously have no radar turned on, so as long as the right echelon turns left collectively, they can form a double column, but the five surface fleets are arranged in a formation similar to an inverted L-shape, which not only "envelops" the two aircraft carriers in the middle, but also compresses the head-on area of ​​the entire fleet to the minimum, and then concentrates all its efforts to intercept missiles from the front and right directions, which can basically ensure safety!

In a formation that kept turning left and right according to a certain fire rhythm to make full use of the fire channel, pairs of anti-aircraft missiles rushed into the sky from the launch pads of the warships with smoke and fire. Prince Eugen, who was at the front, had a happy face and was showing off the vitality of a little bunny and the firepower of a heavy cruiser; Tirpitz, as usual, was dragging the jammer around, crossing his legs, looking like a decadent queen, making a gesture of throwing a paper airplane, and occasionally making a "whoosh" sound from his mouth - every time he made a sound, two anti-aircraft missiles would rush to the left in the direction of the European continent to deal with those targets that might pose a threat; although the Edelweiss Witch had already set out to "intimidate" the British ships and crew, the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, under the command of Bonte, was towing side by side with the Gneisenau at the end of the formation, releasing carrier-based aircraft, and on both wings of the two of them, even the Hindenburg sisters, who had no ship girls but also had two sets of anti-aircraft missile fire control radars on the side of the hull, were also "calling out" the "targets" that were flanking from the right in an orderly manner under the control of the sailors.

Tirpitz even fired a few anti-ship missile pilot missiles from time to time, guiding the Hindenburg sisters' 356 anti-ship missiles to "return" towards the entrance and exit of the Strait of Gibraltar - although the four old battleships there were old, if left alone, dozens of American-made naval guns could still cause some trouble.

The lazy hamster's eyes were full of hatred - American battleships, right? I'll strike first and destroy you first!

As for Bismarck himself?

A blond Persian cat was wearing a light grey hat with an identification strip on the side, and was looking at its captain with a silly smile, who was standing in front of the porthole in the command room, "watching the fireworks". And from time to time, two thick white smokes, with the speed of a hurricane, would pass by the right side of the bridge, draw a long parabola in the blue sky, and rush towards the direction of those stupid aircraft in the distance, blooming into flashes of fireworks and flashes.

And considering the radar field of anti-ship missiles, there are less than eight anti-ship missiles per warship on average. Not to mention the quasi-Aegis missile cruiser Eugen - she alone took care of most of the targets this time!

Moreover, when dealing with targets like anti-ship missiles... if it were an airplane or if Hindenburg and Ludendorff were to attack, they might need two shots to kill one, but for Eugen, it was basically one shot per kill, and he would never miss!

They started firing at 70 kilometers, and basically lost their targets before they reached 40 kilometers.

Even if the radars of the remaining missiles were turned on, the size and volume of the missiles, coupled with electronic interference and the strong clutter reflection of Cape St. Vincent itself, which was more than 100 meters high, basically made them lose sight of their real targets like headless flies. After all, the more than 100-meter-high cliff of Cape St. Vincent was an excellent reflection surface, and using Tirpitz's jammer with a directional antenna for "mirror reflection" was indeed very effective!

Under the brilliant fireworks, there is the smile of the ship girl, which is a little silly but very happy.

No matter how many anti-ship missiles the British have, they have to find and hit them accurately first!

As for the following aircraft groups that followed panting (piston engine exhaust port) - a bunch of Mosquitoes, Lancasters, Spitfires and so on... ?

Not to mention that everyone still has 183 to percent of the anti-aircraft missile reserves. Just look at the batch of TA-s equipped with anti-aircraft rockets that are climbing and circling above the two aircraft carriers at the rear of the fleet. The nickname of the Crow of Disaster is not for show!

Even if Zeppelin isn't here, but he's just commanding air defense? Hum...

(Fifteen minutes later, Zeppelin was content to watch the British fleet advance and retreat as they returned home, while Lord Mountbatten had fainted in the toilet next to the empty runway at Gibraltar Airport...)

Chapter 884

With the Gibraltar Fortress and the Mediterranean Fleet's four light carriers, thirty-one Spitfires, thirty-eight Dragons, sixteen Mosquitoes, and twenty-two Lancasters following the anti-ship missiles, they were able to "deliver" a battle report of twenty-seven kills to the Crow of Disaster without the participation of the Edelweiss Witch, without gaining anything themselves. In addition, they received two telegrams stating that the large-scale deployment of the US military aircraft fleet at the North African airport was complicated, and that in addition to a large number of alert fighters taking off in advance, heavy bombers needed to assemble and the air strike could not be launched until seven o'clock. Cunningham's face was darker than the bottom of the Vanguard's pot.

War-weary, who was full of anger, became even more impatient. His fiery eyes stared at the direction of several old rivals on the sea chart, and his silver teeth made a crunching sound.

"We can't go on like this! If we continue like this, it will be even harder to fight at night!"

He slammed the table and felt like he was about to explode.

"But, we should have entered their submarine lurking area now..."

Qianwei looked out of the porthole, feeling a little uneasy.

The headquarters has received three submarine warnings reported by subordinate units.

As the saying goes, if you walk too much at night, you are more likely to see ghosts. Although the speed of the surface fleet is much higher than that of conventional submarines, if it lingers in a certain sea area for a long time, the risk factor will double.

In addition to the two suspected traces of "deep sea snipers" reported by the destroyers two hours ago, a German submarine was now found active on the left wing of the formation - this was not a false alarm caused by the sonar soldiers' nervousness, but the harsh reality that a submarine dared to use guided torpedoes to attack the escort aircraft carrier that was sheltering fighters from 20 kilometers away!

Now the flight decks of the two armored aircraft carriers are already filled with aircraft in a dilemma. The only Independence-class light aircraft carrier is also urgently taking off the standby aircraft on the deck to reorganize the air patrol, and then immediately arrange for the landing of the "front" escort fighters that had lost their auxiliary fuel tanks in front of the Zeppelin and now have basically exhausted their fuel.

In order to land, the light carrier had to head north-northeast and head straight into the wind, which was a perfect target for the submarine! What was even worse was that the reception of the carrier-based aircraft was interrupted for more than ten minutes!

The destroyer squadron on the left wing finally managed to save the light aircraft carrier from disaster by using a sonar jammer, and now was turning on the sonar in a rage, searching for the location of the German submarine in the direction of the torpedo attack. However, based on previous combat experience, the range of the German submarine's oxygen torpedoes was far greater than the sonar monitoring range! Therefore, the vanguard had no hope that the destroyer could catch the "fish".

Not to mention, there are only 24 destroyers in the fleet now, 12 of which are needed to cover the three aircraft carriers behind, and the remaining 12 have to protect the assault formation of their own battleships and missile heavy cruisers - four on the left wing, four on the right wing, and four directly escorting - so even if they find a German submarine, they can't catch up. Because if they catch up, they will lose their position, and with the difficulty of the XXI, they can't end the battle for at least a few hours. If other German submarines come over, the consequences will be very serious, right?

Nighttime anti-submarine warfare is generally somewhat difficult. Especially according to the Chinese system of dividing the moon into phases, today is the 20th day of the lunar calendar, and there is no moonlight until midnight. Although as a British warship, she does not know what the lunar calendar is, it does not prevent her from knowing the time of sunrise and moonset. After all, to put it bluntly, these are all common sense in the navy!

There was no moonlight in the first half of the night of the waning moon, and anti-submarine warfare was extremely dangerous in the pitch-darkness! Even though she and Senior War-weary could see submarines 20 kilometers away, this was already within the range of the German submarine's oxygen torpedoes...

Even though the Royal Navy is well-trained and can call in anti-submarine aircraft for cover, the large size of the fleet means it is cumbersome and inflexible - in the pitch-dark night, the danger of being sniped by a double-hit long-range torpedo is extremely high!

As for launching anti-submarine aircraft, etc.... The French Morocco base does have some anti-submarine aircraft, and they have been called now. But even so, it will take a long time to find the German submarines hidden deep underwater. And although there are magnetic anomaly detectors, Leigh searchlights, sonar buoys, and sea search radars, anti-submarine aircraft are not omnipotent.

According to some "people who disagree with Hitler's ideas" in Germany, the XXI class is said to have riveted rubber skins (anechoic tiles) and mechanical shock absorption technology, which can reduce the detection range of passive sonar - it is even said to have a certain effect on active sonar (not to mention that the number of sonar buoys that anti-submarine aircraft can carry is also limited). In addition, "certain special designs that Dönitz was very concerned about" can allow submarines to persist underwater for four or five days or even a week, so the radar and searchlights that can only search the surface are probably of limited effect; as for the long magnetic anomaly detector at the tail of the anti-submarine aircraft, although it can theoretically detect the traces of submarines directly without interference, the biggest fatal weakness of this thing is that the detection range is only 500 yards!

You know, even the old Type VII submarines can dive to a depth of 200 to 250 meters! Not to mention the advanced Type XXI submarines, which can dive to a greater depth!

It will be dark soon. Even if there are a whole brigade of anti-submarine aircraft stationed at several airports here, the anti-submarine efficiency is not guaranteed!

But... when he thought of Senior Yan Zhan's temper and personality, Qianwei looked at him with some uneasiness.

Sure enough, Mie Zhan's voice now sounded angry...

"...We have now entered the submarine ambush circle. There is no point in retreating!" War-weary turned to look at the vanguard and shook his head slowly. There was even a hint of ferocity in his eyes as he fought for the fate of his country. "So we must attack now, otherwise we will be passive after dark!"

As he spoke, he stretched out his fingertips angrily and flicked the position of Cape St. Vincent on the chart table with his fingernails: "...Now there are two submarines behind us. Do you think we can withdraw before dark even if we want to retreat? The aircraft carrier is now 20 kilometers behind us. If we want to turn around, we have to let the aircraft carrier pass first and then put the cruiser and destroyer behind it - this will take at least an hour and a half!"

"But will there be more submarines ahead?" The vanguard said with his head down, somewhat nervously, the toes of his two shoes touching together under the table because of anxiety.

“This…” Yan Zhan was stunned for a moment, then she realized that she was being bullied by her junior, so she waved her fist fiercely, gritted her teeth and shouted angrily: “We can’t just retreat like this, otherwise the next step of the battle will be too uncertain!…”

However, he was interrupted by another voice from the chart table next to him:

"No, now we have to ensure our own safety first! There is no point in having dead people!"

"Huh?!" War-weary turned around in astonishment and looked at Cunningham, whose face was as deep as the abyss and whose intimidating look was like a prison without him even getting angry.

"There are more than a dozen airports in Gibraltar and Morocco, and there are seven or eight within the battlefield. Even if the logistics are not in place, even if the anti-aircraft firepower is weak, even if the US Army Air Force arrives in a hurry, it is not something that Lütjens can easily take down!" Cunningham raised his head and looked through the porthole to the northeast, as if looking at his old enemy across the air: "After all, our fleet is the guarantee of sea control in the Atlantic. If I were him, then no matter what, his final target would definitely be us!"

"So... you mean, we should withdraw from the submarine ambush circle first, and then prepare for the next step?" War-weary's voice was a little high, as if he still had some complaints about his own admiral's order: "But at night, the efficiency of our anti-submarine alert will be greatly affected - and now our destroyer has been running for 30 hours in a row, and the fuel consumption is almost half..."

"Has the fuel been consumed by nearly half? Well, the destroyer's fuel is indeed limited..." Cunningham was slightly stunned.

If you think about it carefully, it seems so. How many tons of fuel can a destroyer carry? How can it possibly compare with the main fleet in terms of endurance?

Moreover, they have to run around everywhere, searching for submarines, ensuring safety, rescuing pilots who fall into the water, and acting as radar pickets... Even if the new destroyers have added fuel tanks, they can only cruise at 4,500 nautical miles. The cruising speed of older destroyers is less than 3,700 nautical miles - and even at full speed, it may only be around 2,000 nautical miles!

If the destroyer has no fuel, there are still submarines on the battlefield... Is this what Lütjens is thinking?

Fortunately, the fuel can last for about another 40 hours, so there is no need to worry for the time being.

Cunningham quickly made up his mind to fight. He turned around and looked at War-weary and said, "This is the only way for now. As long as our fleet is still on the battlefield, the Germans will also be at a loss. So everyone, hold on a little longer and withdraw from here first."

"Then if we lose contact with the German ship and crew... wouldn't that mean we're out of position? We'll be court-martialed for this!"

"That doesn't matter. We still have six submarines in Cape St. Vincent, and this time our American allies brought something called an early warning aircraft. Although it's not very useful on land, it's often interfered by the echoes of mountains and towns, but in flat places like the sea and the desert, the field of view can reach 200 to 250 kilometers. It's enough to monitor the German ships and crew."