The decisive battle against the Third Reich

At this time, the German Navy was cheering, and many naval officers were even so excited that they shed tears... The German Navy had not won a victory for a long time. Let's not talk about other things. Just say that Hitler lost confidence in the navy and ordered the warships to be dismantled to make tanks, which made the navy fall into a miserable state and morale fell to the bottom. Unexpectedly, now they can regain their glory in the Mediterranean with the help of French warships... Although this is not a naval battle but a victory of warships over the enemy's air force, the 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 caps into the sky. "Thank you, Lieutenant!" Raeder held Qin Chuan's hand tightly: "I can't imagine what kind of crisis we would face without your reminder and advice. Please accept my apology... I used to doubt you, and now I realize how stupid I am." Then Raeder said to Colonel Slaine: "Colonel, if possible, I hope to transfer the lieutenant to the navy..." "Sorry, Marshal!" Colonel Slaine refused without thinking: "I don't think General Rommel will agree!" Raeder nodded and said: "I think so too, talents like the lieutenant, Rommel If Mel promised to be a fool! "" Marshal! "At this time, a staff member reported:" I received the information from the Air Force, and found that the British fleet was found in the Tunisia Strait! "Redel took the telegram to see, and then laughed:" It seems that the British intend to destroy us! " It is necessary to unite with the air attack just now ... Obviously, Montgomery intends to use the Air Force to hit the German fleet and then take advantage of the pursuit, and it is necessary to capture the heavy German fleet to make it unable to block the Tunisia Strait. Radel should also be confident, because the damage of the German fleet just now can be said to be minimal ... The key attack target of the British Air Force is three battleships, but the "Richelie" battleship was just because two fighters were shot down in the front deck, and the fire was quickly extinguished. The battleship "Strasbourg" was hit by two bombs... This was because the Second Fleet had only one battleship, the "Richelieu", so providing air defense for the two battleships of the First Fleet would inevitably be a loss of one for the other, and the anti-aircraft firepower of the battleship "Richelieu" was not as strong as that of the two battleships "Dunkirk" and "Strasbourg".

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

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

So this bomb only blew 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, the crew cabin below was the naval officers and soldiers. The loss was that this part of the crew had no place to sleep.

The commander-in-chief of the British fleet was 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 walk in front of the fleet and be responsible for minesweeping... The reason why this fleet is equipped with cruisers and destroyers is because of the fear that the minesweepers will be hit by the enemy's navy or air force.

It is worth mentioning that these 8 minesweepers are equipped with the British Army's new minesweeping equipment: floating minesweeping cables.

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

It was not until the German mine-laying planes accidentally dropped two magnetic mines on a shoal not far from the coast that the British got the two mines, discovered the secrets, and developed corresponding minesweepers in a targeted manner.

Fleet B is composed of two battleships and 10 destroyers.

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

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

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

It is called a reserve because the carrier-based aircraft on its aircraft carrier can cooperate with Fleets A and B, and even when necessary, the battleships and destroyers of Fleet C can be put into battle.

It is said to be a cover fleet because this time Lieutenant General Tovey is worried that his retreat, the Tunisian Strait, will be cut off by the Germans... If this fear comes true, then the entire British Mediterranean fleet will be blocked in Tunisia. There is no way to return to the west of the strait, and the result is that you must either sink yourself or surrender, otherwise you will eventually run out of ammunition and food.

Of course Lieutenant General Tovey would not let this happen, so the order he gave to all fleets was: Once they find that the situation is unfavorable to their own side, they should immediately return along the original route.

Will the situation be detrimental to the British army?

If it were before today, Lieutenant General Tovey believes that it would not be the case. The British Mediterranean Fleet has always been the most powerful fleet in the Mediterranean. Previous naval battles with France and Italy have proved this... The Italian Navy was even beaten to a crawl. Needless to say, this is one of the reasons why the British navy and air force can occupy the small island of Malta and threaten the German and Italian military supply lines.

but now……

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

The reason was the intelligence just sent from the Air Force... More than a hundred fighter planes attacked the German fleet but were defeated miserably.

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

Lieutenant General Tovey hoped that the Germans would weaken the firepower of French warships on the ground and at sea in order to strengthen their air defense.