The Rise of the Third Reich

December 9, 9:10 pm, 133 nautical miles west of Iceland.

Allied Atlantic Combined Fleet, 2nd Advance Team, flagship Shropshire heavy cruiser.

The bow of the ship collided with the wind and waves of the North Atlantic. The tens of thousands of tons of heavy cruiser moved forward at a high speed of 25 knots. Behind it were the Shropshire's sister ships, the London-class Sussex and the Kent. -class heavy cruisers HMS Cumberland and HMS Cornwall, two Soviet heavy cruisers Maxim Gorky-class HMS Gorky and HMS Molotov, as well as the British light cruiser HMS Glasgow and 6 British destroyers.

The 13 ships formed a single column and searched forward in the wind and waves of the North Atlantic. The radars on each ship were all turned on, searching the surrounding waters over and over again. All the sonar soldiers also pricked up their ears, carefully listening for any noise coming from the water.

As the vanguard of the main fleet, it is not their main task to confront German, Italian, and French cruisers and destroyers. Their main task now is to find out whether there are any torpedo ships and submarines lurking on the battlefield. If there are, hurry up. Drive them away to avoid being sneak-attacked by spear torpedoes during the battle between the battleships later.

"Sir!"

The shouts of Colonel Charles Lee, the captain of the Cumberland and the chief of staff of the battle group, rang in the ears of Major General Burnett, the commander of the battle group.

"The radar found targets at a distance of 35,000 yards, more than 10 ships in number, and an orientation of 128 degrees. From the radar signal analysis, 7 of them are large ships."

Rear Admiral Burnett ordered: "Eject two Walruses and see if they can throw flares over the enemy ship formation."

The "Walrus" seaplane is a standard equipment on large ships of the British Royal Navy. It is an old, slow, and easily shot down seaplane. However, Britain, which had become short due to the long-term blockade by the Germans, did not have enough financial resources to develop alternative models and could only make do with the old "Walrus".

In fact, scarcity was replacing Germany as the British Empire's number one enemy. On the mainland, everything is lacking except pessimism. What the people lack most is food. In the coming winter, they will become hungry and cold people. At the same time, many British people are beginning to lack jobs-because of more and more factories. The company had to close down due to lack of raw materials.

Due to a lack of raw materials, the production of British weapons and equipment dropped sharply starting in the spring of 1942, and the quality was not as good as before (this was due to the lack of non-ferrous metals causing a decline in material quality). What's worse is the extreme lack of fuel. Due to the blockade and the consumption of the Irish Campaign, Britain's oil reserves are close to depletion. Therefore, most of the ships of the Home Fleet have to sail to Canada, which has sufficient fuel supply. Now it has almost become Canada. navy!

At the same time, the Churchill authorities, who were a little sick and rushed to seek medical treatment, also turned to coal in hopes of obtaining fuel. Starting from the second half of 1941, the British government began to build a synthetic petroleum plant using the "hydrocracking method" with a relatively simple process.

However, the quality of the synthetic oil produced by this method was not good enough to supply the mechanized forces of the Royal Air Force and Army. Therefore, it is currently only used for some Royal Navy ships staying in the mainland, but even the quantity of this low-quality fuel is still too small to meet the demand. As a result, the ships remaining in the mainland were parked in the port most of the time, and their morale continued to decline. They almost became the German High Seas Fleet in 1918... No, it’s not that the Royal Navy was about to become the German Navy in 1918. But the whole of Britain is about to become Germany in 1918.

If the effort to open a transportation line to the Arctic Circle fails this time, Major General Burnett will be a little worried that the storm of revolution will sweep across the British Isles!

"Commander, the flare has been dropped!" Colonel Charles Lee's shout once again interrupted Major General Burnett's thoughts. He quickly raised his telescope in the direction of Colonel Lee's finger. A huge ship shrouded in white light immediately appeared in the camera, as if... a Bismarck-class battleship!

"A battleship!" Rear Admiral Burnett took a breath, put down his telescope and looked at Colonel Lee. "It looks like a Bismarck!"

The air in the bridge of the Shropshire heavy cruiser suddenly became tense. If it was really a Bismarck-class battleship it encountered, then this 10,000-ton heavy cruiser would be in danger.

"Boom, boom, boom..." The sound of continuous shelling came. It was the "Bismarck"-class anti-aircraft gun that was firing, and the shots were very accurate. One of the "Walrus" aircraft immediately turned into a fireball, and the other one was frightened. You have to escape quickly. Now there are no more planes to drop flares.

"Report to the Soviet Union and find a formation of more than 10 enemy ships, including 7 large ships, one of which is suspected to be a Bismarck-class battleship!" Because we could no longer observe, we did not dare to move the formation under the muzzle of the enemy battleship. Rear Admiral Burnett had no choice but to report the uncertain situation to the Soviet Union.

…

"Comrade, political commissar... comrade, the 2nd advance team may have discovered the German battleship formation. There may be 7 battleships, including 1 Bismarck class!"

7 battleships, including 1 Bismarck!

Because of Lieutenant General Fraser's report, the already tense atmosphere in the Soviet bridge suddenly reached a fever pitch. Even Comrade Bulganin, who was always calm and composed, took a long puff on his pipe, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"If the German Barbarossa class and the French Dunkirk class are considered cutting-edge battleships/battle cruisers, then they should have 16 battleships/battle cruisers." Ingersoll frowned and analyzed , "In addition to this battleship/battle cruiser formation, there should be 1-2 other formations."

Germany now has 2 Hindenburg class, 2 Bismarck class, 2 Barbarossa class and 1 Gneisenau (it is often regarded as Barbarossa class), and the Italians have 4 Veneto class. The French have 3 Richelieu-class ships and 2 Dunkirk-class ships. There are 16 ships in total, but the French Richelieu is now unable to participate in the war, so Ingersoll counted one more ship.

Because after the last "exploding cannon" incident, the Richelieu has been staying in the shipyard. It was first used to test the main gun to find the cause of the exploding barrel (later it was found that the problem was with the shell), and then it was dismantled. One main turret (the one with the blown chamber) was equipped with a 3-unit 406mm main turret for testing - this is the main gun prepared by the French for their new generation battleship "Alsace" class.

The French restarted the "1938 Naval Plan" after the Mediterranean Campaign and began to continue building two Joffre-class aircraft carriers and four Ilsas battleships.

Among them, the No. 1 ship of the Joffre class, the Joffre, had been 28% completed before June 1940. The construction continued after France signed the peace treaty (the No. 2 ship had not laid the keel). Currently, this aircraft carrier, which has a standard displacement of 20,000 tons and can carry 40 carrier-based aircraft, has been put into service, but it has not joined the European Combined Fleet. This is not because the French are reluctant to contribute their only aircraft carrier (the Bénya was The British detained the French Navy) because they needed this sole aircraft carrier to test the twin-engine carrier-based bomber Br.810 bomber.

The Br.810 carrier-based bomber is one of the many sub-models of the Br.690 series. If it succeeds, it will probably be the first carrier-based twin-engine bomber to be put into practical use. It is considered a very important model. Therefore, Fokker, which has rich experience in building carrier-based aircraft, also participated in this project.

The progress of the "Alsace" class battleship is much slower than that of the "Joffre" class aircraft carrier. The design was not completed before June 1940. It took another year to complete all the design work after learning from the experience and lessons of the "Richelieu" class. At the beginning of 1942, the construction of the No. 1, No. 2 (Normandie), and No. 3 (Frandie) class ships of the "Alsace" class started one after another, and it was planned to be completed in early 1945.

The 3-unit 406mm main gun tested on the Richelieu is the main gun that the "Alsace" class will use. According to the design, the "Alsace" class will have three 3-unit 406mm turrets, with very powerful firepower!

By the way, because France started construction of the "Alsace" class, Italian leader Mussolini was not to be outdone and immediately took out the "Duke Alexander" (Duke Alexander was Mussolini himself) class battleship that had been prepared for a long time. plan. This class of battleship is actually the UP-41 battleship designed for the Soviet Union by the Italian company Ansaldo. It has a standard displacement of 42,700 tons. It also has three 3-unit 406mm main gun turrets. There are also three ships in total, namely the Alexander Duke and the Roma. Emperor and Duke of Cairo. According to the plan, these three UP-41 battleships will also be completed in early 1945.

However, this super battleship is still on the slipway and cannot threaten the Atlantic Combined Fleet of the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union at all.

"Even if they have 16 battleships/battle cruisers, the advantage tonight is still on our side!" U.S. Navy Admiral Ingersoll said to Bulganin, "The 2nd Advance Team can be allowed to avoid this enemy ship formation. Continue to search the battlefield. Then concentrate the forces of Team 1 and Team 2 to destroy these 7 Nazi and fascist battleships!"

…

"Marshal, the heavy patrol force seems to have attracted the enemy's main force! The enemy's advance formation has bypassed the heavy patrol force, and their main force formation is moving closer to the heavy patrol force."

At 9:30, on the battleship Hindenburg, 10 nautical miles south of the heavy patrol force of the European Combined Fleet, Admiral Lütjens also received the latest battlefield situation from the Bv-138C reconnaissance aircraft.

"Okay!" Marshal Lütjens smiled and nodded, "Order the heavy cruiser to turn north and maintain the speed at 20 knots. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd battle groups will follow, and we will follow the heavy cruiser.

Now, get ready for a Jutland-style showdown! "