Bismarck

The Rock of Gibraltar itself blocks the front of the airport and acts as an air defense fulcrum.

Even though the Gibraltar fortress had just been severely damaged by artillery bombardment and self-explosion the night before, the few British and American anti-aircraft guns that had been urgently repaired were short of ammunition and spare parts, and had not even had time to be adjusted. But on their side, they still had 80mm guided rockets!

The air defense guided rockets are light in size and easy to use. As long as a few sets of spare parts are moved from the ship's warehouse and lifted to the top of Mount Gibraltar by helicopter, a light air defense missile position can be built.

As for the ammunition problem, there is no need to worry about it. This thing is very light in size, and even the Ju-52 transport plane, which has a very limited carrying capacity, can easily transport several sets - even if it needs to be dropped at Tangier Airport first and then transferred to Gibraltar, it won't take much effort.

Even if these missiles and rockets cannot reach the high-altitude Allied bombers, under the cover of fighter jets, they will have no problem dealing with those that escape by infiltrating at low altitudes.

If a surprise attack is launched from behind the mountains, the mountains will not only block the radar field of view, but also affect the vision and tactical performance of the assault aircraft group - if the enemy cannot see you, you cannot see the other side either. If you cannot see the other side, you naturally cannot see the anti-aircraft firepower around the Gibraltar Fortress Mountain in front of the airport and the air defense area of ​​the German fleet.

Opposite the Gibraltar Fortress is the Ceuta Peninsula in northern Morocco. The width of the mountain range itself is very limited, and the number of enemy planes in each wave cannot be too many - the "Simley Organ" and 105 anti-aircraft guns are not just for show. They are basically coming here to deliver the goods, one squad after another to "refuel"!

As for directly attacking the German fleet...?

It is impossible to use anti-ship missiles during low-altitude penetration, and the mountains obscuring one's own position means that one cannot occupy the position first to launch an attack - what is the difference between an airplane that rushes out blindly and a sitting duck?

As for high-altitude missile attacks...?

Even if the Rhine Daughter stock is insufficient, have you asked the Raven of Disaster? Not to mention, if the situation is not right, the warship can still run away!

After looking at the terrain here and the fierce air battle on the other side, Top suddenly had an idea in his mind.

"Have you asked your sister Bismarck? Are there any new orders from the commander?"

"No." Eugen shook her head slightly, her two long ponytails swung up half a circle around her body. "The commander said that he has asked Captain Bonte to organize a group of planes to come over for defense. However, Tangier Airport seems to be in danger, so the commander said that we must defend Gibraltar Airport."

"It's a bit risky... So we have to at least defend one airport...?"

Looking at the Allied high-altitude bombers that were swarming like a swarm of locusts on the map board, and then looking at the two aircraft carriers and the Bismarck sisters outside the port of Tangier, which were under the command of Commander Lütjens himself and were constantly adjusting their course and running back and forth just to launch and retract their aircraft into the wind, Top turned his head and looked out the armored porthole where the dusk was gradually deepening. After a brief thought, he gritted his teeth:

"The key now should be the air battle...Their single-wing fighters don't have the ability to fight at night, and night fighters can't win, so all we have to do is drag it out until night!"

Thinking of this, Top's eyes sharpened and he made a decision.

"Just wait until dark - Eugen, we'll take over!!"

A few minutes passed in a flash.

As the sun set in the west, a group of Allied aircraft, whose formation was really embarrassing, finally escaped from the interception airspace of the Ravens of Disaster, and emerged from behind the mountains outside the Silda Port with their bullet-riddled fuselages. However, before they could clearly observe their position and determine the attack route of the formation to attack the Gibraltar airport, brilliant fireworks and whistling fireworks completely covered the airspace near the mountains opposite Gibraltar.

That fatal beauty and the setting sun at dusk were the last visual impressions of many Allied pilots.

---------

"What? Your air raid failed? Doesn't the Air Force have twenty airfields and 2300 planes over there?"

Cunningham, who had just arrived at the oil tanker and was organizing the refueling work, almost stupefied after receiving the communication from Arthur Cunningham on the microphone.

We all know that the evil spirit fleet is very powerful, so we agreed that you should focus on harassment and save your strength until you can refuel and come back to attack in a coordinated manner. Why are you sending your main force up now?

"Don't even mention it. The Germans sent reinforcements from France early this morning. I estimate they have 200 jets here, and their offensive air defense has even reached my airport! If I don't send planes to bomb their airport, do I have to wait for their jets to fly over my head every day?"

Cunningham, who was on the other side of the radio station, looked even more depressed when he saw the call back from his cousin Cunningham.

If he really lets Zeppelin fly his jet over my head, then none of the dozen or so airports here will be able to take off!

Just think about it, when the airport is built, a bunch of jets will be flying over your head every now and then. How can you have fun there?

Cunningham looked unhappy. Cunningham on the other side looked at the reason given in the reply and couldn't help but smile bitterly. He called War-weary and sent a telegram back: "So what's the situation on your side now?"

"Not very optimistic. More than one-third of the 1,400 aircraft sent out were lost, and a number of them need major repairs. As for the Germans, the evil fleet was unable to suppress them, and the bombing of them had no apparent effect. Tangier Airport was bombed by me, but the aircraft that attacked Gibraltar from low altitude were discovered by the Germans in advance. They had no altitude in the mountain valley, so they were suppressed by the German jets, and Prince Eugen was blocking them with two battleships, so they suffered heavy losses..."

"Then the bombing of Gibraltar was not successful?" Cunningham asked.

"A few bombs were dropped on Gibraltar, but the airport is too big, so this loss has limited impact on them. Besides, the Germans still have two aircraft carriers, so if they really need to repair Tangier Airport, it will be repaired by tomorrow at the latest... Lütjens will definitely get another batch of airlift reinforcements tonight, but I can't order an attack. Because they have Zeppelin, a night attack would be suicide... Besides, if the Germans don't suffer much loss now, they might continue the 'offensive defense' and ride on my head directly."

Through the words in the reply, Cunningham seemed to see the tearful look of his own Australian counterpart on the other side.

After all, the evil spirit fleet could not suppress it, and its troops suffered heavy losses. Although it bombed an airport on the opposite side, the more important Gibraltar airport still maintained its combat effectiveness. As long as the Gibraltar airport can be used, the German transport planes will continuously airlift supplies from France here!

The German Me-323 "Goliath" heavy transport aircraft has a load capacity of nearly ten tons. It is durable and can take off and land on simple airfields. Even if a heavy transport aircraft is a sitting duck in front of a fighter, it is even more impossible to get close to a transport aircraft now that they can't even break through the Gibraltar airport.

"It looks like the situation is very bad... Let's talk about it. What should we do now?"

After reading the telegram, Cunningham handed it to Tovey, War-weary and Vanguard with a wry smile on his face for them to circulate.

And when the three of them finished reading it, the number of people smiling bitterly increased from one to four.

"Our Mosquito has a range of 4,000 kilometers. Can't we arrange for the Mosquito to attack directly over Spain?" Vanguard suggested.

"The Spanish route is too far, it won't be easy to find the other side, right?" Seeing such a bad idea from his junior, War-weary rolled his eyes: "Besides, this is Spanish airspace, you will directly cause a diplomatic incident if you do this."

"Then..." The vanguard who was criticized by his predecessor shrank his neck and turned his inquiring eyes to his commander, Marshal Tovey.

"We now have seven battleships, two aircraft carriers, two light carriers, five escort carriers, 280 aircraft, and several submarines that have been looking for opportunities near the strait. However..." Tovey twisted his chin and calculated for a while, then sighed: "The escort carriers are too slow and too small, and can only provide anti-submarine cover; as for the light carriers, the one I have is a giant-class one with a speed of only 25 knots, and the two aircraft and two light aircraft carriers cannot defeat Zeppelin and Gneisenau; we have 450 cruise missiles, but the air force cannot defeat the evil spirit fleet, so how to get close to the Gibraltar Fortress is a big problem..."

"The attack power of the evil fleet is there after all. If they defeat our fleet, the entire Atlantic Ocean will be empty! But if our fleet approaches and launches missiles, it will inevitably be exposed to their attack range." Cunningham gritted his teeth and said, "Cunningham suffered heavy losses, and Lütjens relied on the performance of the jet to carry out 'offensive defense'. I estimate that the German jet may have already ridden on Cunningham's head - that is to say, in Morocco, airports within 400 kilometers of Gibraltar can basically be ignored."

"Then there's no way to contain the Germans, right? We don't have any base nearby, and we'll have to return sooner or later, so..." The war-weary girl frowned, leaning over the chart table for a long time, but couldn't think of any good ideas for a while.

She knew that the German jets had auxiliary fuel tanks. With two aircraft carriers and two airports with two hundred fighters, there were probably forty or fifty jets flying around the Allied airport at any time. Even if there were anti-aircraft guns at the airport, who was Zeppelin? It was no longer news that she could guide airborne guided bombs to attack!

Besides, even if their efficiency in bombing the airport is not as fast as yours in repairing a dozen airports, with dozens of jets circling overhead, your airport will basically be out of service - if you take off one of your planes, they will rush down and kill one of yours, what can you do?

"So the problem now is that the Moroccan airport is suppressed by the Germans, so we have to drive away the German air force first and liberate Cunningham's Moroccan air force base group?" Vanguard folded her hands in front of her chest, and after saying this, the corners of her mouth twitched unconsciously.

Are you kidding me? The German reconnaissance aircraft has a detection radius of 1,000 kilometers, while the anti-ship missiles have a range of only 370 kilometers. Now that the Moroccan airport has been suppressed, our carrier-based aircraft cannot defeat the Zeppelin jets. Without air superiority, we are probably sending braised pork heads and pork belly sausages to the German ships for free!

"If we want to enter the venue, it will take at least ten hours! Damn it!"

At the nautical chart table over there, a man with a face full of unwillingness and war-weariness was measuring left and right with a ruler. Finally, he threw the naval ruler in his hand in anger and stomped his feet and said.

After hearing the words "Yan Zhan", several people looked at each other and drooped their heads.

Ten hours...Isn't that enough for the German shipmen on the opposite side to bomb me to death eight or ten times?

The conference room fell into silent frustration for a moment.

However, not long after, Tovey, who was standing aside, muttered something to himself, which drove away the confused silence in the conference room:

"In that case... that means we need at least one more scapegoat to divert the Germans' attention?"

"Hmm? Tovi, what did you say?"

Several people who were also deep in thought were immediately attracted by this sentence. Especially Cunningham and War-weary, the couple with rich practical experience, looked at each other in tacit understanding and asked in unison.

"Nothing, I have an idea! First we have to find a scapegoat, lead the Germans away, and Cunningham will be freed naturally." Tovey's eyes became brighter the more he thought about it, and he slammed his fist into his palm, raised his head and said: "Then, we will let the 'scapegoat' and Cunningham unite to attack Lütjens - even if the two of them can't beat the guy named Lütjens, at least they can cover our main fleet to enter. At that time, let the carrier-based aircraft of the escort aircraft carrier take charge of miscellaneous tasks and the air defense of the main flight, and then all the carrier-based aircraft of the aircraft carrier and light carrier will be sent up, and then the cruise missiles will be pressed up, and then I'll see what Lütjens and Gibraltar will do!"

Tovey said this with a gnashing look on his face, as if he had already seen the scene where the cruise missile killed Lütjens and avenged Hood in heaven.

However, Cunningham, War-weary, and Vanguard on the other side thought of another question:

"But who is worthy enough to be the scapegoat? Our strength in the Mediterranean is only a few old battleships and four giant-class light carriers. Isn't this enough to fill the gaps in the Germans' teeth?"

"Yes, the speed of the Colossus is only 25 knots, and the old American battleship is only 21 knots, which is too slow. Besides, the combat power of the light carrier is not as good as that of the regular carrier. The Zeppelin ship alone is enough to deal with these guys..."

The vanguard didn't say anything, but the way she clenched her fists in front of her chest and the way she stared at her own admiral expressed her thoughts and feelings.

But Tovey smiled: "That's right - only Zhenghang is important enough to be a scapegoat. That's true, but who says we don't have Zhenghang in the Mediterranean?"

"How can we have a legitimate voyage in the Mediterranean, unless..." Cunningham subconsciously continued Tovey's words, but he was stunned halfway through his words: "Wait, Tovey, you don't want to let... the surrendered Italians go up, do you?!"

War-weary also reacted and stared at Tovey in astonishment.

As the secretary ship of the First Sea Lord and the flagship of the Royal Navy, Warspite was of course aware that after the Italian royal family launched the coup against Mexico, the Italian Navy also surrendered to the Allied forces. Moreover, with the support of the two aircraft carriers Aquila and Empire, even the bombers sent by Marshal Kesselring, the commander of the German Italian theater, returned empty-handed. The essence of the entire Italian Royal Navy, including three Veneto-class battleships, two Akizuki (Eri, Marina)-class old battleships, and the almost intact Taranto shipyard, had now been fully taken over by the Allies.

However, just because the Italians have surrendered, they are now forced to fight again - and to be scapegoats... Although she can accept this approach, from the perspective of diplomatic impact, it is no longer "relatively bad", right?

ps: Is it beneficial to stand on the side of the genius?

Chapter 901: Help from the Imperial Marshal

The Strait of Gibraltar, where the bombers retreated, finally welcomed a temporary peace while the smoke of gunpowder had not yet dissipated.

The setting sun had completely disappeared below the horizon of the Atlantic Ocean, with only a last ray of residual light tinging the deep blue night sky. After the bombing, the two airports were in ruins, but the runways of the two most critical airports were bustling with activity.

"Brothers! Hurry up, it's time for us to repair the airport!"

"Add some gas, work harder, and fix it quickly. The transport plane will be here soon!"

"Roll up your sleeves and get to work!"

The fire brigade and the engineering corps drove the bulldozers "borrowed" from the Spaniards, put on a few anti-mine "braces" hastily made in the machine repair workshop on the warship, and drove into the devastated airport where they didn't know whether it had been mine-dropped by the enemy from the air. Following these temporarily modified mine-clearing bulldozers were, as usual, excavators, dump trucks, road rollers, and transport vehicles equipped with assembled steel plate runways.

Fortunately, compared to Tangier Airport, which only had one simple runway, Gibraltar Airport had a wider runway, was built to higher engineering standards, and had stronger defenses. A runway was quickly cleared for takeoff and landing.

Although it is just a simple runway based on sand and gravel, with steel plates laid on it after a few strokes of a road roller, this kind of road surface is enough for the ME-323 giant transport plane to land safely!

These big guys have a transport capacity of ten tons!

Compared to the Ju-52 "Junkers Auntie", which is only a medium-sized transport aircraft with limited transport capacity, the Me-323 transport aircraft, which can directly transport large cargo such as vehicles, missiles, and materials, is an absolute giant!

And relatively speaking, the safety of the transport aircraft fleet, which flew entirely within the airspace of Spain, was at least not a problem.

In addition, the reinforcement fleet stationed at the Gibraltar Fortress has long been prepared. As long as there is no problem at the airport, it can be transferred at any time.

only……

"At present, there are still enough planes and artillery shells, and fortunately, several warships have not suffered serious damage. In terms of supplies, the fleet still has 60% of fuel, and ammunition and spare parts other than missiles can last for four to five days. But..."

Reading the freshly-released report and thinking about the shortage of supplies, Bismarck looked a little depressed.

Even the tail dragging behind it was swinging back and forth unconsciously and impatiently.

"Now our 'Rhine Daughter' anti-aircraft missiles are basically exhausted. There are only less than fifty V-1 anti-ship missiles left, including Grape and I. More than half of the 80mm rockets have been used up, and even if the ship-borne anti-aircraft rockets are included, there are only 52 left. The aviation kerosene is only 323% left. In addition, the jet engines need to be replaced every hours - Zeppelin's stock is running low. Moreover, these things cannot be transported by Ju-, but can only be transported by Me- transport aircraft. But in this case, the air transport fuel replenishment cannot be guaranteed... This is roughly the situation, that's all."

"The situation is not very optimistic..."

After reading the battle analysis and statistical reports made by Bismarck, and listening to the introduction of the existing logistics supplies of the entire fleet, Lütjens' brows were basically never relaxed from beginning to end.

Although in theory the Ju-52 and Me-323 are both reliable and durable transport aircraft, the fuel consumption of heavy transport aircraft is too high! However, these heavy transport aircraft cannot be used without them. Only with their tonnage and transport capacity can they transport bulk cargo such as radar antenna equipment, air defense missiles, anti-ship missiles, and aircraft spare parts.

But...the fuel consumption of Me-323 is really terrible!

The Me-323 has twelve tons of internal fuel, and its range is only 12 kilometers when fully loaded with 750 tons of cargo. The load must be reduced to less than ten tons, and the remaining tonnage must be carried on internal auxiliary tanks to reach 1000 kilometers, which is the distance from southern France to Gibraltar.

But the problem is that the Me-323's range is only enough for a one-way trip, and the fuel for the return flight has to be deducted from the Junkers' transport volume!

Even if the return flight was lightly loaded, the Me-323 would still need more than 52- tons of fuel. Even if there were only sorties per day on average, that would consume - tons of precious aviation gasoline—that is, two-thirds of the transport capacity of the Ju-!

Each Ju-52 can only transport 240 kilograms of supplies, and 323 Ju-s a day can only transport tons at most. If the Me- transport aircraft can also transport to tons... it is really a drop in the bucket for the cruelty and tragedy of air combat!

Moreover, apart from transportation, the current enemy situation is not optimistic!

The Gibraltar fortress was isolated overseas. Although the capture of this fortress did cut off the connection between the Allied Mediterranean theater and the Atlantic Ocean, it also involved himself and his fleet in a place besieged on all sides by the Allies.

The order from above was to hold on for at least four months - as long as this was cut off, all Allied offensives in the Mediterranean and Italy would have to be suspended. For Germany, which was fighting hard against the three million Soviet troops on the Eastern Front, if it could not hold on here, then withdrawing troops from the Eastern Front to support would mean a complete failure of the war!

Lütjens had never seen the overwhelming armored army shouting "Ura", but he had heard the silly girl from his family who had traveled from the future and had been with him through all the ups and downs in the past few years describe it to him. With his many years of military experience and the fact that his old friends in the army, Guderian and Rommel, were now trapped in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp digging potatoes, how could he not know how heavy his responsibility was?

but……

"The old man Cunningham's fleet has not suffered any loss of strength, and there is news that Tovey's home fleet has already moved south to join him. Even though this guy's aviation force is not very strong, he has 450 cruise missiles... and, what's even more troublesome is that he has at least two battleship girls under his command..."

When he thought about how Gibraltar was taken, and then thought about the wanted order issued by the KanColle Squadron for looting the Bermuda Fortress a year ago, the bandit Lu would never dare to let the girls under his command leave the Gibraltar Fortress too far!

However, in the face of endless air strikes, not to mention aircraft carriers, even battleships are actually very vulnerable!

Even though he had fought off several attacks in succession, the warships still had limited ammunition and fuel! Not to mention that relying solely on defense would not always be infallible - just one mistake could lead to a chain reaction that would cause the entire fleet to collapse!

Even though the offensive air defense seems to be effective these days, the logistical costs and risks are even more significant!

"There's no point in thinking about these things. There's no way to get out of this damn place now... We can't just let the British ship girls come and seize the fortress, can we?" Lütjens muttered to himself with a wry smile.

After all, his fleet only had a few ships, and his only two airports were Gibraltar Fortress and Tangier Airport, so his strength was too weak.

But there was nothing he could do about it - although he didn't like Hitler or Raeder, he was a soldier. After hearing his own ship cat talk about the tragic situation in post-war Germany, in order to ensure the future of the country, he could only hold on to the end.

However, the Persian cat next to him couldn't help but give his captain a blank look when he heard his captain muttering "the ship girl is counterattacking".

It seems that you also know that the Bermuda Fortress and this place were both taken down by those sisters who collectively abandoned their elegance and ladylike manners, rolled up their sleeves, and rushed forward with cannons in hand to "shoot" them down, right?

I don't know how to make something delicious for her every day! For example, I cooked another pot of dumplings like I did on Valentine's Day three years ago...

But when she talked about that dumpling meal, she remembered the cute little hamster of Sister Keng and Lindeman who was able to control the hamster.

Thinking about the brutal war that was still going on, even if he was heartless, Bismarck's mood drooped along with his ears and tail.

I don't know what will happen when this war ends...

Although she knew very well that it was all the little mustache's fault that he had to fight to this extent, but... did she and the captain have a choice?

On the other side, Lütjens was in no mood to pet the cat. His mind was full of logistics and fleet safety issues.

Although the Air Force promised to guarantee air transport, not only was the transport capacity of the transport aircraft limited, but considering the overall resources and strategy of Germany, the fuel consumption of these transport aircraft was also very high.