Chapter 321 Fleet

At this time, the German Navy was emitting cheers, and many naval officers were even moved to tears... The German Navy had not won a victory for an unknown period of time. If nothing else, it was said that Hitler had lost confidence in the navy and ordered The dismantling of warships to make tanks plunged the navy into misery, and morale fell to the bottom for a time.

Unexpectedly, French warships can now regain their glory in the Mediterranean... Although this is not a naval battle but a victory of warships over the enemy's air force, naval officers and soldiers all know that this is more difficult than defeating the enemy fleet in a naval battle. So this victory made the German navy completely crazy. They cheered, jumped, and kept throwing their navy hats into the sky.

"Thank you, Lieutenant!" Reidel held Qin Chuan's hand tightly: "I can't imagine what kind of crisis we would have faced without your reminder and suggestions. Please accept my apology... I had doubts before After you, now I realize how stupid I am."

Then Raeder said to Colonel Slain: "Colonel, if possible, I hope to transfer the lieutenant to the Navy..."

"Sorry, Marshal!" Colonel Slain refused without thinking: "I don't think General Rommel will agree!"

Redel couldn't help but nodded and said: "I think so. With a talent like the lieutenant, Rommel would be a fool if he agreed!"

"Marshal!" A staff officer reported at this time: "Received intelligence from the Air Force and discovered a British fleet in the Tunisian Strait!"

Redel took the telegram and read it, then smiled and said: "It seems that the British are planning to completely wipe us out!"

Qinchuan knew what Redl meant. The appearance of the British fleet in the Tunisian Strait should be combined with the air sneak attack just now... Obviously, Montgomery planned to use the air force to severely damage the German fleet and then take advantage of the situation to pursue it. It was necessary to capture and severely damage the German fleet so that it could not effectively block the Tunisian Strait.

But now, Montgomery is clearly disappointed.

"Turn!" Redel ordered confidently: "Go to the Tunisian Strait at full speed!"

At this time, Redl should also be confident, because the damage to the German fleet in the battle just now can be said to be minimal... The British Air Force's key attack targets were three battleships, but the "Richelieu" battleship was shot down only because two fighter planes were shot down. A fire started on the foredeck which was quickly extinguished.

The battleship "Strasbourg" was hit by two bombs... This is because the Second Fleet only has one battleship, the "Richelieu", so providing air defense to the two battleships of the First Fleet will inevitably lead to the loss of one, and The anti-aircraft firepower of the "Richelieu" battleship is not as powerful as the anti-aircraft firepower of the two battleships "Dunkirk" and "Strasbourg".

This allowed several British bombers to take advantage of the loophole and hit the "Strasbourg".

But one of these two bombs hit the front of the turret of the "Strasbourg"... Although the "Strasbourg" battleship is the second ship of the "Dunkirk" class battleship, its The protection is better than that of "Dunkirk". Compared with "Dunkirk"'s 330MM thickness of armor on the front of the turret, the thickness of "Strasbourg"'s turret front armor reaches 360MM.

So the bomb only made a dent in the turret and did not cause much damage to it.

Another bomb hit the main deck and blew a big hole in the 125mm armor and caused a fire... Fortunately, there was the crew cabin of the naval officers and soldiers below. The loss was that this crew had no place to sleep.

The commander-in-chief of the British fleet is Vice Admiral Tovey, who was the commander who commanded the British Navy to sink the famous German battleship "Bismarck" a few months ago.

Vice Admiral Tovey divided the fleet into three parts:

Fleet A consists of 5 light cruisers, 10 destroyers and 8 minesweepers.

The task of this fleet is to be at the front of the fleet and responsible for minesweeping... The reason why this fleet is equipped with cruisers and destroyers is because it is worried that the minesweepers will be attacked by enemy naval or air power.

It is worth mentioning that these eight minesweepers are all equipped with the British army’s new minesweeping equipment: floating minesweeping cables.

This was specially designed to deal with the magnetic mines invented by the Germans... In the early days of World War II, Germany creatively invented a magnetic mine, which would sense the magnetic field of warships and detonate. This detonation method once caused heavy losses to the British Navy.

It wasn't until the German mine-laying aircraft mistakenly dropped two magnetic mines into a shoal not far from the coast that the British obtained the two mines, discovered the secrets and developed corresponding minesweepers.

Force B consisted of two battleships and 10 destroyers.

This fleet is obviously the main force of the British army. Their mission is to quickly pass through the Tunisian Strait and attack the German fleet together with Fleet A after Fleet A clears the sea area ahead.

Fleet C is the aircraft carrier fleet, which consists of 1 aircraft carrier, 1 battleship and 8 destroyers.

Its mission is to serve as a reserve force and also to cover the fleet.

It is said to be a reserve force because the carrier-based aircraft on its aircraft carrier can cooperate with the A and B fleets. Even when necessary, the battleships and destroyers of the C fleet can also be put into battle.

It is called a covering fleet because this time Lieutenant General Tovey is worried that his retreat, that is, the Tunisian Strait, will be cut off by the German army... If this worry comes true, then the entire British Mediterranean Fleet will be blocked to the west of the Tunisian Strait and unable to return. The result is either self-sinking or surrendering, otherwise there will always be a day when they run out of ammunition and food.

Lieutenant General Tovey will certainly not let this happen, so his order to all fleets is: once the situation is found to be unfavorable to their side, immediately return along the original route.

Will the situation be unfavorable to the British army?

If it was before today, Lieutenant General Tovey believed that it would not be. The British Mediterranean Fleet has always been the most powerful fleet in the Mediterranean. The previous naval battles with France and Italy have proved this point... The Italian Navy was even beaten and retreated, which is one of the reasons why the British Navy and Air Force can occupy the small island of Malta to threaten the transportation supply lines of the German and Italian armies.

But now...

Lieutenant General Tovey had to put a big question mark in his heart.

The reason is the intelligence just sent from the Air Force... More than 100 fighter planes sneak attacked the German fleet but were defeated.

As we all know, air defense is the weakest link of French warships. What made the Germans make up for this shortcoming?

Lieutenant General Tovey hoped that the Germans would weaken the firepower of French warships against land and sea in order to strengthen air defense.