Chapter 324 Minesweeper

"Lieutenant!" Marshal Raeder asked Qin Chuan loudly from a few meters away: "How did the talk with the French general go?"

"Oh!" Qin Chuan replied: "You know, talking to the French is nothing but surrender!"

The headquarters couldn't help but laugh again.

Just as the German warships were rushing to the Tunisian Strait at full speed, the British A Fleet was sweeping mines with all its strength.

During this period, Major General Fischer, commander of the German 27th Air Wing, took the initiative to contact Marshal Raeder.

"Marshal!" Major General Fischer reported: "We found the enemy's minesweeper fleet in the Tunisian Strait, and there are more warships behind them. The specific number needs further reconnaissance. What is your plan? Do we need to stop them from clearing mines?"

"No, Major General!" Raeder replied: "Let them clear the mines, we will arrive in more than half an hour!"

"Yes, Marshal!"

Raeder's decision was of course correct, because the distance from Tunisia to the strait minefield is about the same as Malta, which means that when the German Air Force in Tunisia takes off to bomb the British minesweeper fleet, the British fleet will also take off from Malta to join the battle.

In this way, Germany only has the Air Force, while the British Army has the Navy and the Air Force to fight together. Obviously, the German Air Force will suffer.

The German Air Force does not have an advantage in numbers, so waiting for the arrival of the Navy is a wise choice.

"Also!" Raeder said to Major General Fischer: "I think we should change our tactics a little bit!"

"What?" Fischer didn't quite understand what Raeder meant.

"You should have heard about our battle in the Tyrrhenian Sea!" Raeder said.

"Yes!" Fischer replied, "It was a beautiful battle, Marshal!"

"So..." Raeder said, "You don't have to rush to provide air cover for the navy, understand? I think those British still don't know where the problem is, and will try to use planes to preempt them as before, so we can teach them a lesson again!"

Fischer understood it now, he nodded and responded, "Yes, Marshal!"

Because there was no interference from German fighters and warships, the minesweeping of the British A fleet went smoothly.

Of course, the minesweeper always sweeps the mines as cleanly as possible, so as to provide a wider and more favorable combat waters for its fleet as much as possible.

So, 8 minesweepers drove back and forth in the Tunisian Strait under the cover of cruisers and destroyers...

The minesweeping principles of minesweepers and minehunters are different.

A minehunter is a ship equipped with detection equipment that can detect whether there are mines underwater and then conduct targeted minesweeping... But as you can imagine, although minehunters are more accurate, their work efficiency is relatively low, and they need to spend more time sweeping mines.

Minesweepers do not have detection equipment. Their hulls are specially treated, such as using non-magnetic or less-magnetic materials to build the hull, and are also equipped with demagnetization devices, so that magnetic mines will not be detonated; for example, the ship is equipped with various noise reduction devices to prevent it from detonating acoustic mines.

In short, minesweepers are basically invisible to mines.

Then, the minesweeper tows the floating minesweeping cable behind it, and a magnetic field will be generated around the cable... The magnetic mines will be detonated one by one. Acoustic mines are fired into the water by sonic bombs.

Ordinary mines are anchor mines with mine cables... Only by fixing the mine anchors and mine cables at a certain point can the mines not be washed away by the waves.

It is even easier to deal with this kind of mine. The minesweeper is small in tonnage and shallow in water, so it will not trigger this kind of mine. The minesweeper cable sunk to the bottom of the sea at the rear is equipped with a cutter. When passing through the mine, the mine cable will be cut, and then the mine will float to the surface, and it can be detonated with a gun or a cannon.

The eight British minesweepers are all new minesweepers. Each ship has several different minesweepers at the same time, so the mines were almost cleared in less than half an hour.

"General!" After receiving the telegram, the staff reported to Lieutenant General Tovey: "It can pass!"

Lieutenant General Tovey was stunned when looking at the map, and then asked: "Where is the German fleet?"

"It's still 20 nautical miles away from us!"

"Where is the Italian fleet?"

"Always in Palermo Port and Messina Port!" The staff replied.

Palermo Port and Messina Port are on the other side of the strait. Among them, Messina Port has to pass through the narrow Messina Strait, which can easily be blocked by the British Air Force, which almost means that Italy has no intention of participating in the war.

In fact, Raeder did make a request to Garibaldi, hoping that Italy would also send a fleet to fight with the German Navy.

But the Italian naval commander chose to avoid it after hearing that the British Mediterranean Fleet was out in full force.

"It is difficult for our warships to break through the British air blockade and join the battle through the Strait of Messina!" Admiral Angelo replied to Garibaldi: "And we don't have good communication and enemy identification with the Germans. Our participation in the war may cause unnecessary chaos!"

When Raeder heard this explanation, he cursed: "The Italians actually said they didn't recognize French warships?!"

Raeder was right. The Germans used French warships, and Italy was right next to France, and the French fleet had always been Italy's main opponent. How could it be "impossible to misidentify".

But Raeder didn't have any hope for the Italians. He didn't care whether they came or not, especially after repelling a sneak attack by the British Air Force.

Lieutenant General Tovey was hesitant. He believed that the German Navy must have something to rely on before it dared to come to meet the enemy as it was now... Or, the German Navy might not have had two battleships severely damaged as reported by the Air Force.

At this time, Montgomery's call came to Lieutenant General Tovey's headquarters.

"What are you waiting for?" Montgomery said: "Crossing the Tunisian Strait, so that we can spread our firepower without being blocked by the enemy in the strait and unable to move!"

The Tunisian Strait is not narrow. It is about 200 kilometers wide. Although this is enough for two navies to fight, there may still be uncleared mines in the strait, which will make warships wary.

On the other hand, if the fleet is concentrated in the strait, it will easily be bombed by enemy fighter planes.

Therefore, the correct approach should be to pass through the minefield as soon as possible, which is also the narrowest section of the Tunisian Strait (148 kilometers), and enter the Bizerte Port area to fight the German navy.

"General!" Vice Admiral Tovey said: "I don't think they had two battleships severely damaged as we guessed..."

"No matter what, Lieutenant General!" Montgomery said: "Don't be intimidated by the Germans. Our air power still has the advantage. We have more warships and more combat effectiveness than them. We even have an aircraft carrier!"