Imperial Overlord

The weakness of the British fleet, the old navy Lütjens immediately saw this fatal weakness, which is the coordination of speed and fleet!

At this time, in the Atlantic Ocean, there were as many as four British transport fleets to be protected, and if you count the smaller ones, there were no more than seven or eight.

With so many transport fleets, there are only transport ships inside, and there may be more than 200 ships. Counting the escorting ships, 300 ships could not stop it.

With such a large-scale transportation fleet, the coordination alone is already a headache, not to mention several assembled in one breath?

Presumably at this time, the entire fleet is still coordinating, and unified command cannot be achieved at all. Reluctantly gathering and sailing will become a serious problem.

How can such a fleet of temporary pieces be dispatched like an arm, and how can it have a high speed?

Therefore, in Lütjens's view, such a huge naval transport fleet can have a speed of seven or eight knots, even if the British sailors are well-trained.

There is also a small disadvantage in equipment, that is, such a huge fleet has been assembled on the sea, but there is a serious shortage of air defense forces.

Most of the ships were unarmed, and the surrounding destroyers had very average anti-aircraft guns.

In the Atlantic Ocean in 1940, the number of British warships ready for air combat could probably be counted on one hand.

A month ago, no one would have believed that there would be German warships in the Atlantic. Of course, there are few warships, let alone planes.

It is because of this that Lütjens and Hines are confident that their carrier-based aircraft will find the unfortunate situation of hundreds of British ships.

If this is placed in the Pacific Ocean, in the middle and late stages of the war, just the anti-aircraft artillery of the warship itself will make more than 20 carrier-based aircraft, depressed and cursed.

The speed is extremely slow, there is not much anti-aircraft firepower, and the dense formation stretches for dozens of kilometers at sea... Such a fleet, Hines feels that it is really suitable for the attack of carrier-based aircraft.

"Is there any news from the reconnaissance plane that took off earlier?" Thinking of this, Hines couldn't wait.

He turned sideways and asked his subordinates: "Ten planes, five formations, haven't found the location of the British fleet?"

There is no dedicated carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft on the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, and fighter jets are used for cameos. Even so, the fleet would not be able to send 10 valuable fighter jets to reconnaissance at once.

In fact, it was the fighter jets that took off from the aircraft carrier Zeppelin, and there were only four two-plane formations that went to make a cameo reconnaissance.

The remaining six planes were all seaplanes that took off from battleships. Battleships including Prinz Eugen, Tirpitz, Gneisenau, and Scharnhorst all took off their own seaplanes to assist in the reconnaissance.

Even so, it is not an easy task to find the opponent's fleet on the vast sea.

The last time Britain was in the Denmark Strait, because of the time lag, it failed to find the German fleet that rushed into the Atlantic.

It can be said that finding the opposing fleet at sea is really a key factor in determining the outcome of a naval battle.

The current German naval fleet has no experience in this area, and can only rely on their rigorous attitude and a little bit of experimentation and exploration.

The good news is that they have the approximate location of the opposing fleet and have just received a telegram from a German submarine indicating the exact location of one of the opposing convoys.

Using a compass and a drawing tool, I measured it on the chart table and made a cross with a pencil. Lütjens probably guessed the opponent's rendezvous point, so he could send his own reconnaissance plane in a more targeted manner.

The four fastest FW-190T fighter jets have just been dispatched to fly in this direction.

"How are your preparations? We are in a hurry... Maybe we will encounter other annoying things." Seeing Hines coming back, Lütjens asked according to the chart.

Hines, who had just returned from the deck, threw his hat on the corner of the chart table and replied, "25 JU-87C bombers, all ready."

Hearing that the attack fleet had only 25 aircraft, Lütjens seemed a little dissatisfied. You must know that these planes have been checked at the port when they sailed, and they are all in a usable state.

It is a pity that the planes of World War II had many failures, and the ability to maintain such a state of attendance is already the performance of the professional level of the German ground crew.

"There is an aircraft oil pipe failure, another engine is being repaired, and the other is being debugged. It is estimated that it will be able to catch up with the next batch of attack missions." He knew his own business, and Hines explained.

Lütjens also had to accept the fact that there were fewer planes he could dispatch.

In the first wave of attacks, the German carrier-based aircraft forces would do their best, 25 attack aircraft, covered by 6 fighter jets, to carry out a surprise attack.

"All attack aircraft carry torpedoes instead of bombs to attack to increase the attack effect." Hines himself made some modifications when he mentioned the attack mission.

In view of the impossibility of installing a large number of anti-aircraft guns on British transport ships, Hines decided to use all torpedoes to attack.

First of all, torpedoes are more effective in killing surface ships than aviation bombs. Such a choice would maximize the power of the attack and sink more British transports.

Secondly, Hines was certain that the opponent's anti-aircraft firepower was limited, and there was no need to use dive bombers to interfere with the opponent's anti-aircraft artillery fire, so as to obtain a bombing track for the torpedo plane.

With these two reasons, Hines radically selected all his attack weapons as torpedoes without a bomb.

In this way, if he is lucky, his 25 attack aircraft can sink 20 or so British transport ships!

"Is there any problem with torpedoes?" Lutjens asked worriedly after hearing Hines' choice.

The Navy has been plagued by instability in torpedo fuzes lately. Many commanders of the naval submarine force are responding to a problem. Whether it is a magnetic fuze or a collision fuze, there are serious defects that cannot be detonated.

There are many ways to improve. For example, the magnetic fuze torpedo has been disabled, and the collision fuze has also been set at a more reasonable depth of use.

After a series of improvement measures, Hines believes that the torpedo in his hand can be regarded as a relatively reliable attack weapon: "Don't worry, I don't think there is any problem!"

"Report!" An officer came over excitedly and handed over a report record: "Long live the head of state! The reconnaissance plane discovered the enemy fleet, which is quite large!"

"Location!" Lütjens, who returned a military salute, was most concerned about the exact location of the enemy fleet. Now that the enemy had found it, he felt his heart beating faster.

"It's here!" The officer pointed on the chart, not far from the fork that Lütjens struck.

Thinking about it, if the distance differs too much from the inference, it is impossible for the reconnaissance plane to find the target.

Hundreds of ships look huge, but they are still very small in the Atlantic Ocean. If you want to find such a fleet, the error cannot be even tens of kilometers.

"Hines! Dispatch the attack fleet! The fleet improves its combat readiness! Enter the first-level combat state! Start the attack!" Straightening up from the chart table, Lütjens gave the attack order.

"Woo...woo!" The harsh battle alarm sounded in all the cabins of the battleship, and the crew watched the red light flashing above their heads and made their own battle preparations.

The towering bow cut through the icy waves, and on the deck of the USS Zeppelin, a JU-87C Navy Stuka propeller began to turn.

Soon, the other Stuka behind it also started the engine. Under the guidance of the ground crew, one after another, the Stuka attack planes aimed their noses at the slender runway.

As the take-off commander's command flag was slammed down, the first Stuka, with a long torpedo on its belly, rushed to the end of the runway.

There, the heavy fuselage sank slightly towards the sea the moment the landing gear detached from the deck. Then the plane was pulled up steadily by the pilot and flew into the gray sky.

The sky over the Atlantic Ocean has been grey, it seems, from as far back as I can remember. Although it should be considered sunny there, there is always a certain distance from the blue.

In this gray sky, the second Stuka rushed into the sky, forming a small two-plane formation with the first aircraft.

Immediately after ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ the third and fourth aircraft joined the formation, and more aircraft were on deck ready to take off.

Soon, all 25 Stukas took to the sky. Next to take off are the FW-190T fighters responsible for protecting these Stukas.

The reason why the fighters took off later was because of the difference in range. The short legs of German fighter jets forced the officers in command of the operation to arrange the takeoff order as rationally as possible.

In comparison, Japan's Zero fighter is indeed a magical weapon. It can take off first, hovering in the air for half an hour, and wait for the attack aircraft to take off and fly to the target together...

It is a pity that, just as Japanese planes cannot envy the excellent diving performance of German planes, German planes are indeed far behind their Japanese counterparts in terms of range.

"Now, all we have left is to wait." Looking at the flying fighter, Hines said with emotion.

"Yeah!" Lütjens felt uncomfortable. It was the first time he had experienced such a naval battle that the enemy was out of sight, and the outcome seemed to be out of his control...