afterglow

Chapter 415: The sea is vast and the fish is leaping; it is only a matter of time before the gun goes off
"Mr. President, I have to tell you some bad news. The Royal Navy's HMS Hood was sunk while intercepting the German fleet."

There was a five-hour difference between Washington time and London time, and the upper echelons of the federal government learned of the outcome of the Battle of the Faroe-Iceland Channel during dinner that day.

But in fact, everyone was not at a loss or shocked because they had already been mentally prepared.

When they learned that the German break-up fleet had set sail and the British army was going to intercept it, people were already predicting the outcome of this hunting operation - of course, there was a high probability that it would be a bad situation.

"The British no longer have the ability to restrain the Germans, and the Atlantic transportation line will collapse within two months. If we don't respond effectively, they won't be able to hold on for long, and there will be mass deaths caused by lack of food in three months at most. "

After a long silence, President Franklin said: "We must be more proactive... Such a passive state is not good."

Food is the most important thing for the people, so people have to eat.

The British Isles need to import about 2000 million tons of food every year. Most of the grains come from colonies such as Indus, Burma, and Malaya; imported meat comes from the United States; dairy products mainly rely on Australia and New Zealand, two Commonwealth countries.

As destroyers assisted by the United States have been deployed one after another, the momentum of the German submarine force has been curbed in the past month and a half, but more than 60 tons of food have still sunk into the sea.

For this reason, the British had to re-establish the Ministry of Food Supply and began to implement a rationing system and limited food supply.

Starting from the middle of last month, that is, August 8, British people began to receive food stamps issued by the government. These coupons can usually only be registered and used in designated stores.

And it should be noted that food stamps are not vouchers, but merely indicate eligibility to purchase specific foods.

食品供应部为平民制定的配给标准是每一星期227克培根、454克糖、113克茶叶、533克肉、227克奶酪、454克果酱、227克牛肉、340克黄油、113克猪油。

At the same time, they called for a "root vegetable movement" to encourage people to transform their back gardens into vegetable gardens and grow easy-to-grow root plants such as carrots and potatoes to reduce the consumption of grains and meat.

[picture]

In order to encourage people to eat carrots, the British government issued a large number of posters and also promoted to the public that they are rich in vitamin A, which can greatly improve eyesight.

Today, radar technology is still a secret technology that is not disclosed to the public, so the British government claims that the reason why those pilots and anti-aircraft artillerymen were able to shoot down enemy planes at night was because they ate too much carrots.

But no matter how hard the British try to reduce food consumption, there is still a limit. Anyway, the Angsa people are definitely not a herbivorous people since ancient times. The food reserves in the British Isles are decreasing every day.

In accordance with the President's instructions, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox formally issued an order to the fleet performing Atlantic patrol missions——

Under the premise of not firing, use any feasible means to hinder, stop, and track the discovered German warships or submarines; if the opponent fires, sink them immediately.

Frank is also a legendary figure. He was born in Boston. He interrupted his studies as early as the American-Spanish War to serve in the First Volunteer Cavalry Brigade of the US Army, and that brigade was the volunteer army founded by Roosevelt.Frank entered the political arena on the eve of the European War and actively advocated that the United States should join the war to expand its global influence. He also practiced it and re-enlisted in the army after the United States entered the war. He went to fight in France in the 78th Infantry Division and eventually retired from active service with the rank of artillery colonel.

This order can be said to be extremely aggressive, almost tantamount to provoking trouble.

Just imagine how much of a headache the Germans would have if several U.S. destroyers had been following German warships or submarines and kept informing the British of their coordinates.

In the Battle of the Faroe-Iceland waterway, only the heavy cruiser HMS Sussex and one destroyer of the Royal Navy successfully evacuated. The British naval glory, HMS Hood, ceased to exist, and five destroyers were sunk.

Vice Admiral William Whitworth and more than 400 officers and men sank with the ship, and only five people survived.

They picked up the floating debris and were lucky enough to be rescued by the destroyer sailors who abandoned the ship before they died of hypothermia - except for the Firefly, the other four destroyers had time to lower the Kali life raft after abandoning the ship. So most people survived.

Due to the impact of the Firefly and the torpedo of the Hanren, the battlecruiser Theodor could only reach a maximum speed of 26 knots, and then was torpedoed by British aircraft.

It was already sunset, and the Swordfish torpedo planes that took off from the aircraft carrier Fury were unwilling to miss the last opportunity and risked running out of fuel and returning to the sea to launch an attack on the German break-up fleet.

The British pilots knew that this operation was more important to damage rather than sink, so they did not concentrate their attacks. The 17 Swordfish torpedo planes were divided into three groups to attack Franz, Bruno, and Theodor respectively.

The Bruno nimbly dodged the aerial torpedoes dropped by the slow-moving Swordfish, but the Franz and Theodor were not so lucky.

The Franz was hit by a mine, losing 530 tons of heavy fuel, and its maximum speed dropped to 29 knots.

The Theodor was hit by two mines. Although the damage was properly controlled and there was no risk of sinking, the speed was only 20 knots. Now even low-speed battleships like Rodney and Nelson can catch up with her. .

The price the British paid was... 8 Swordfish torpedo planes.

Compared with the paranoia of war navies in history, the Workers' Navy is more practical and adopts the doctrine of appropriation. The standard medium-caliber anti-aircraft gun is the naval version of the Army's Flak36 37mm anti-aircraft gun. It is given the number SK.C/37 and the gun is replaced. The seat and the rate of fire are reduced. In fact, the combat rate of fire is three times that of the "37 handheld machine" in history.

The sea conditions when the British aircraft carried out the torpedo attack were not good. The wind force was close to level [-] and the wave height was more than eight meters. Therefore, the swordfish had to release the torpedoes at an extremely slow speed, so they almost became a living target.

The "Baltic Ice Breaking" operation failed to achieve a perfect ending after all. Major General Hubert could only make the most favorable decision based on the situation while lamenting.

He ordered the Theodor to terminate its mission, search and rescue nearby drowned officers and soldiers from both sides, and then proceed to Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, to destroy confidential documents and cipher machines first, then wait for the diplomatic crisis, and scuttle herself immediately if things went wrong.

The three battleships received a telegram from Theodor: "I wish you success and make the British realize as soon as possible that stubborn resistance is meaningless..."

After that, the Teodor turned around and returned to the previous fighting sea area.

She continuously launched flares to search and salvage the Kali rafts packed with British officers and soldiers, and then sailed towards her destination in western Iceland at a cruising speed of 12 knots.

As for the flagship of the break-up fleet, the Franz, although it was damaged by an aviation torpedo, it was not a big problem. The top speed of 29 knots still fell into the category of a high-speed ship, and the heavy fuel lost could be replenished later.

After the two sides said goodbye, Franz, Bruno, and Pick continued their journey.

At this point, the breaking fleet has successfully broken through the Royal Navy's blockade. The three warships will go deep into the Atlantic Ocean overnight and disperse to hunt their own prey.As part of the action plan, the German News Agency arranged for 21 merchant ships to provide supplies for the break-up fleet deep in the Atlantic Ocean. These merchant ships set sail from France. They were civilian ships on the surface, but in fact they carried various types of ammunition and heavy oil.

In addition, five U-boats also received instructions to conduct advance reconnaissance along the route from Halifax to England.

After the "parting of ways", the heavy cruiser Peake was the most daring. It first sailed southwest at a speed of 21 knots for one night, and then immediately turned due south.

This is a place where cargo ships heading to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope often pass, including merchant ships carrying grains produced in Asian colonies to the British Isles.

At noon London time on September 9, an Ar-5 water reconnaissance aircraft ejected from the Peake discovered the merchant ship Udaipur sailing north.

After seeing the flying Union Jack flag, Ar-196 immediately used machine guns to shoot at the sea in front of the merchant ship, and used a signal light to request the ship to stop and prohibit the sending of telegrams.

The Udaipur had to shut down its engines, the captain ordered the lifeboats to be lowered, and began destroying important documents on the ship, including the British Maritime Liaison Code Book.

At the same time, the captain also planned to pretend that he did not understand the meaning of the second half of the light language and insisted on asking the crew to send warnings and coordinate information.

The Ar-196 backseat radio operator noticed the merchant ship's trick, and the seaplane immediately strafed the merchant ship's forward deck and flew by at a very low altitude.

The crew was forced to give up sending the message and began to board the lifeboats one after another.

Finally, the Peake came quickly from far and near. In order to save main gun ammunition, she only used the 105mm anti-aircraft gun to aim at the target waterline and fire.

"Boom! Boom!"

The SK.C/34 twin-mounted 105mm anti-aircraft gun fired violently, causing fragments of the Udaipur's hull to scatter in all directions.

Almost 10 minutes later, the Udaipur, whose left hull was riddled with holes, capsized due to an unbalanced large amount of water intrusion. Soon, only bubbles, ripples, and oil splashes were left on the sea surface.

After salvaging the lifeboat and its crew, the Peake continued southward along its course.

After a day and a night, when passing the Canary Islands, the German sailors threw the crew of the Udaipur and their lifeboats overboard.

Unlike the little troubles of the Pico, the Franz was much luckier.

She encountered an entire merchant fleet on the route from Canada to England without missing a beat!
This fast fleet, codenamed HX27, consists of 32 merchant ships, most of which are from Halifax, and a few from New York.

They were loaded with iron ore, copper ore, bauxite, cheese, wheat, and meat; several British merchant ships departing from New York also carried P-36D fighter jets aided by the United States.

There are a total of 5 destroyers escorting it, 3 of which are Clemson class - from the previous base-for-destroyer deal.

There is no suspense about the subsequent battle. In four words, it is like a wolf among the sheep.

Having learned lessons from the Faroe-Iceland waterway naval battle, Franz no longer dared to take the British destroyers lightly, so it prioritized attacking those destroyers from the beginning.

The one-sided killing continued from early morning to evening that day. Two destroyers and 2 merchant ships were sunk, with a total tonnage of 13 tons. It can be said that they made a lot of money in one start.

Interestingly, there were two submarines, U-26 and U-70, lurking nearby. They were still thinking about how to speak, but unexpectedly, an own battlecruiser arrived and swept away the HX27 fleet like a whirlwind. ?
The two submarines took advantage of this, and several merchant ships were torpedoed and sunk before they could survive.

For the Germans it was a good time to celebrate, but for the British it was a bad time to be gloomy.

In the far east, Mingto, who was watching all this from the wall, was intensively preparing for future actions.

"My dear, now the sea is really wide and the fish is leaping. There is no way to catch it. We can only try our luck with Sunderland (seaplane)."

"There are also aircraft carriers. Didn't it mean that the British are so anxious that they are even preparing the Argos?"

The so-called Argos is the Hundred-Eyed Giant, the world's first all-deck aircraft carrier. It has a history of 20 years. It was rebuilt by the British based on merchant ships and can only carry 20 carrier-based aircraft. The maximum speed is only 20.5 knots.

The British even pulled out such a classic ship, which shows that the situation has reached an urgent point.

Zhou Changfeng came to Hangzhou again. The first sea trial of the Lu Xun was successfully completed, and the first professional amphibious command ship was about to be handed over to the Dongyang Fleet of the Ming Navy.

Anyway, it was modified based on the B[-] type freighter. Although the center of gravity was significantly increased due to the addition of horizontal armor, the seaworthiness still met expectations and there were no flaws.

"Have you heard about Zhou Kexing? The US military in Luzon has been regarded as abandoned. MacArthur applied for reinforcements of a group of tanks and torpedo boats, but they were all rejected."

Behind a courtyard of the naval base, Yan Zhong and Zhou Changfeng were walking in this quiet place with pavilions, bridges and flowing water.

Yan Zhong's most valued nephew is Yan Chenwu, so he often has contact with Zhou.

When Zhou Changfeng took office as the chief officer of the newly formed [-]st Marine Regiment, Yan Zhong was the chief officer of the First Battle Fleet of the Eastern Fleet.Now the former is a commodore, and the latter has been promoted to lieutenant general and moved to admiral of the Eastern Fleet.

"Luzon, as a bridgehead, was originally abandoned. Americans are very smart and will not waste resources on places of little significance." Zhou Changfeng shrugged and said casually: "Anyway, that place is to contain our army, relying on fortifications With the indigenous troops, the cost is low and the cost-effectiveness ratio is the highest."

"The Germans are messing up." Yan Zhong took a deep breath from his cigarette. "The news obtained by the embassy in the United States is that the Minister of the Navy has ordered every possible means to obstruct the German ships. I am afraid that the gunfire is about to happen."

Zhou Changfeng, who looked calm, nodded slightly and said with a relaxed smile: "It's just a matter of time. It's good. Most things are expected."

(End of this chapter)