The Rise of the Third Reich

At noon on February 12, British Admiral Winston Churchill drove on the streets of Paris. He came for the battleship "Richelieu", which is now being fitted out with eight quadruple-mounted 380mm/45-caliber main guns and will be completed in June or July 1940.

The British Royal Navy hopes that this super battleship can be transferred to the French Atlantic Fleet after completion to cooperate with the British Home Fleet.

Because British agents discovered a huge super battleship that looked like a floating city appeared in Wilhelmshaven a few days ago (in fact, it has not yet been completed)! It should be the legendary German F-class battleship "Bismarck" battleship.

The appearance of the "Bismarck" immediately caused panic in the British Admiralty. Because the battlecruiser "Hood" is still lying in the dock for overhaul, and it may not be able to leave the dock in 1940. Because the British Admiralty engineers warned after a comprehensive inspection and study of the damage to the "Hood": there are major problems with the ship's protection, the horizontal armor is not strong enough, the anti-torpedo design is outdated, and the anti-aircraft firepower is seriously insufficient. If it is not strengthened, it will easily suffer heavy damage in future operations!

So the British Admiralty had to let the "Hood" stay in the dock for a few more months to strengthen its defense level.

And several "King George V" class battleships have not yet been built. The Royal Navy's only two battleships that can fight the "Bismarck" are theoretically the "Nelson" class that have just been repaired.

But the theoretical maximum speed of the "Nelson" class is only a pitiful 23.8 knots, which is impossible to catch up with the "Bismarck".

Although the British did not know the speed of the "Bismarck", they knew the German Navy's commerce-breaking tactics, so they guessed that the "Bismarck" had a speed of more than 30 knots. Except for the "Reputation", the current Royal Navy probably has no battleship/battlecruiser that can catch up with it. But the Renown could not defeat the Bismarck anyway.

Therefore, the British Admiralty, which was a little desperate, thought of their French friends who had the Richelieu-class battleship. According to the plan, this battleship will be in service in a few months (maybe even earlier). Before the Hood completes its overhaul and modification, it will be the main force against the Bismarck and its sister ship Tirpitz.

When Churchill thought that the commerce-breaking fleet composed of the Bismarck, Tirpitz, Gneisenau and two German aircraft carriers would break into the Atlantic in the second half of 1940, his brows twisted into a ball. At this time, Admiral Verrick, the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force who came to the airport to greet him, spoke and interrupted his thoughts.

"Minister, look there!"

Churchill heard the voice, and then looked in the direction of Admiral Verrick's finger, only to see a pile of twisted, charred metal in the open space in front of a department store, and the "Iron Cross" mark could still be vaguely seen.

"Is it a German plane?" Churchill said.

"It's a He-111," Admiral Vereker said, "The Germans bombed Paris again last night, and it seems that they didn't get any advantage."

The military operation of "bombing Paris" has finally begun! There are no 1,000 planes and 10,000 tons of bombs. However, there will be dozens to hundreds of German medium bombers visiting Paris every night.

The ones that come are usually He-111 and Ju88, which break in from an altitude of 6,000 meters, drop bombs and leaflets casually, and rarely get shot down, and rarely destroy any valuable targets.

However, the French authorities still made great efforts to defend the airspace of the great capital Paris. Not only did they turn Paris into the city with the densest anti-aircraft guns in the world, but they also asked for the "home chain" radar and many squadrons equipped with Spitfire fighters and Blenheim night fighters from Britain, plus 20 squadrons equipped with Ms.4tez631CN-2 night fighters.

"The Germans don't dare to come during the day?" Churchill took out a custom-made oversized cigar. Admiral Vereker took out a lighter and lit a cigarette for the future British Prime Minister (Prime Minister Chamberlain was exhausted and in poor health recently, and Churchill would soon be the Prime Minister). "The Germans bombed the airfields west of the Maginot Line during the day, and sometimes dropped a few oversized bombs on the Maginot Line." Admiral Verrick replied, "Our Hurricanes, Spitfires and the French Ms. 406 aircraft are mainly concentrated in military airports near Metz, Annouge, Nancy and Verdun. As long as the weather is good, there will be air battles. Before they completely gain air supremacy, there should be no possibility of launching large-scale air raids on Paris during the day."

"Oh," Churchill took a puff of his cigarette, "Who has the advantage?"

"The Germans," Admiral Verrick frowned and said, "Obviously the Germans! They have two great aircraft, the BF-109 and the Fokker Zero, which are really difficult to deal with. Even if we don't count the aircraft destroyed on the ground, the exchange ratio between the two sides is close to 1:3... In order to shoot down a BF-109 or Fokker Zero, we have to lose 3 Ms. 406, Hurricanes or Spitfires."

"It sounds terrible!" Winston Churchill took a big puff of his cigar. "Fortunately, we can still purchase aircraft from the United States to supplement them."

American "****" (that is, P-36) and F2A have been shipped to Europe one after another and will soon be equipped with British and French armies. However, the performance of these two aircraft is not very good, and they are no match for the BF-109 and Fokker Zero.

"Minister, what is really terrible now is not the loss of aircraft, but the loss of pilots!" Admiral Verrick said, "Although most of the battles took place in French airspace, considering the casualties caused by German aircraft bombing The exchange ratio of pilots and front-line pilots is still around 1:2. If the Germans lose one, we French will lose two or more... Minister, this kind of war of attrition is very dangerous to Britain!"

"I understand." Churchill said lightly, but instead of continuing the topic in the air, he turned the conversation to the ground. "So, how does General Gamelin plan to defeat the Germans?"

General Gamelin is now the commander-in-chief of the British and French forces, and it is his responsibility to lead the British and French forces to defeat Germany. Although there was no major battle on the ground during this period, General Gan Molin did not intend to let the more than one hundred divisions under his command sit quietly until victory.

"Admiral Gamelin prepared to form a large armored force," said Admiral Wyrick. "He studied the situation in the Polish campaign and believed that the key to the German victory was to have a strong armored force. The Germans concentrated their use of tanks. , instead of distributing them to infantry divisions. This is their secret to winning the war! So General Gamelin is ready to learn from the Germans, organize 24 armored divisions before 1942, and then use them to crush the Germans!"

"24 armored divisions?" Churchill smoked a cigarette. "That sounds like a lot...but where are we going to attack from? Are we going to break through the Siegfried Line?"

"No, of course not," Verrick said. "Admiral Gamelin believes that Belgium's neutrality can be undermined when necessary."

Churchill shook his head and said: "If we have to wait until 1942 to launch a counterattack, it means that the Royal Navy will have to fight the Bismarck, the Tirpitz and several other more powerful super battleships! "The British Admiralty Minister said in a serious tone, "According to intelligence, the seven major shipyards in Germany have a total of nine large slipways with a capacity of over 60,000 tons. These slipways are currently building ships, and they probably won't be super cruise ships... Intelligence shows that the Germans have a large-scale shipbuilding plan, and they are probably already building a battleship larger than the Bismarck, possibly a 60,000-ton giant battleship!"

The British also got some information about Germany's construction of "H" class battleships and "O" class battleships. Although they don't know much, they can guess that these two battleships must be more powerful than the "Bismarck" class.

If you want to deal with them, you can't rely on the existing British battleships. Even the "King George V" class and the "Lion" class are not necessarily their opponents.

"In addition, according to reliable intelligence," Churchill exhaled smoke, and then said, "the Soviets' four 'Soviet' class battleships will also be put into service within 1942. By then, Germany and the Soviet Union will have up to 15 (9-seat The 60,000-ton slipway will each build one giant battleship, plus two Bismarck-class and four Soviet-class super battleships! This is something that the British Royal Navy and the French Navy cannot resist..."

The British Admiralty has obviously overestimated Germany's shipbuilding plan. Currently, the construction of 2 H-class and 3 B-class aircraft carriers on the nine 60,000-ton slipways (one of which was launched only after the launch of the Tirpitz Keel laying started), 2 O-class ships, and 4 P-class ships (the 2 P-class ships share a 60,000-ton slipway). However, even a combined fleet composed of 2 Bismarcks, 2 H-classes, 2 O-classes, 4 P-classes, 1 Gneisenau plus 4 Soviet-class ships was not something that the British and French navies in 1942 could handle. of.

"Minister, what should we do?" Admiral Verik asked with a frown. In fact, he also had doubts about Gamelin's plan of 24 armored divisions to crush Germany. Because the Germans will definitely form new armored divisions. There may not be 24 armored divisions by 1942, but there will never be less than 20, right?

The British and French armored divisions cannot have an overwhelming advantage in numbers!

"We still have to bomb the oil-producing areas of Baku, Grozny and Batumi!" Churchill exhaled smoke and lowered his voice, "Let French planes do the bombing!"