The Rise of the Third Reich

June 11, 1941, 12 noon. 10 Downing Street, London, UK.

Admiral Alexander said in an unusually low tone: "Mr. Prime Minister, we have lost the battlecruiser HMS Hood, the battlecruiser HMS Reputation, the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, and the light cruiser HMS Fiji. In addition, The 'Prince of Wales' also completely lost its combat capability and ran aground in Lerwick Port..."

Having said this, Minister Alexander's eyes were filled with tears. He glanced at Fatty Qiu, who looked as usual and was smoking a cigar as usual, and said, "Mr. Prime Minister, the balance of strength between the British and German navies may have reversed, and the Germans have control of the sea..."

When he said this, he only heard a gasping sound in his ears. This was the gasp of the members of the British Empire's war cabinet.

The Lord of the Admiralty himself admitted that he had lost sea power! This kind of thing never happened when the British Admiralty began!

"We have not lost our sea power yet!" Churchill exhaled a puff of smoke and said, "The British Empire will not lose its sea power now and will never lose its sea power in the future! The sea will always belong to Britain!"

"But, but..." The Minister of the Navy shook his head painfully, "But we only have 7 battleships, 1 battlecruiser and 4 fleet carriers left. The Germans have at least 3 battleships and 4 battleships. Cruisers, 1 fleet aircraft carrier, the Italians also have 6-7 battleships, and the French have almost 6-7 battleships.

Moreover, according to reliable intelligence, the Germans will soon have two battleships more powerful than the Bismarck class and two aircraft carriers with a displacement of more than 30,000 tons..."

Churchill said loudly: "We will soon have two very powerful 'Vendor' class fleet aircraft carriers and three new 'King George V' class battleships! And the 'Prince of Wales' will also be repaired soon. In addition, , we still have two powerful 'Lion' class battleships under construction!"

The "Lion" class battleship is a super battleship that the British started building before the start of World War II. However, not long after the start of construction, the construction was stopped due to the outbreak of World War II and the shortage of various raw materials. However, after Britain lost the Great War in the Eastern Mediterranean, Churchill ordered the resumption of the construction of the "Lion" class. In addition, Churchill also ordered the design of a super battleship "Avangard" class that could counter the legendary German 70,000-ton battleship.

However, it is not yet known when the "Lion" class will be completed, and the "Avangard" class is still on the drawing board. Even the No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 ships of the "King George V" class will not be completed until the end of June 1942 at the earliest. In other words, in the next 10-12 months, the British Royal Navy will not add new battleships, and can only use 7 battleships and 1 battlecruiser to deal with more than 20 German, Italian and French battleships.

"But we don't have enough battleships now..." Minister of the Navy Alexander shook his head and said, "Although we still have an advantage in the number of aircraft carriers, Germany's shore-based aviation is too powerful. If there are not enough battleships, we may lose England." Strait!"

"No, the English Channel will not be lost!" Churchill said very definitely, "We can hold it, there is no doubt about it. And... we will also have enough battleships!"

"Do we have enough battleships?" The British Admiralty's eyes widened.

Churchill nodded, "Yes, we have the Centurion, and we can also lease the Utah from the Americans."

"'Centurion' and 'Utah'?" Alexander, the Minister of the Navy, was dumbfounded. "Prime Minister, these two battleships have long been outdated and are of no use at all."

Churchill glanced at Alexander, "How could it be useless? A battleship is first a deterrent strategic weapon, and then a weapon used in battles. As long as a battleship exists, even if it does not go into battle, it is a deterrent!"

"But these two battleships are too old and not powerful enough."

Neither the battleship "Utah" nor the battleship "Centurion" is an active battleship. The "Utah" is a training ship of the U.S. Navy with a standard displacement of 23,700 tons. The "Centurion" is a target ship belonging to the British Royal Navy, with a displacement similar to that of the "Utah". Both battleships were completely obsolete and could not be used on the battlefield.

Churchill took two puffs of his cigar and said thoughtfully: "I know they can't fight, but we can camouflage these two battleships, just like this time using tankers to camouflage the aircraft carrier... We can camouflage these two battleships as 'George' The King V class is declared to be the Duke of York and the Anson. In addition, the Iron Duke does not need to be dismantled. It can also be installed as the King George V class and is declared to be the Howe. 'Number."

The "Iron Duke" battleship is the No. 1 ship of the "Iron Duke" class. It has already withdrawn from the front line. It was a training ship of the Royal Navy at the beginning of the World War. It was hit during the bombing of Scapa Flow on September 3, 1939. Shen. Because it sank near an important waterway, it was salvaged. However, it is not planned to be repaired, but sent to the shipyard for dismantling. Fortunately, the dismantling project has just begun, and the hull is still basically intact and can be used for "camouflage".

Since the "Utah", "Centurion" and "Iron Duke" are all old ships of 20,000 tons, their appearance is still very different from the 38,000-ton "King George V" class. Therefore, the camouflaged "King George V" can only be seen from a distance but cannot be seen in detail, let alone go to the battlefield. In the original history, the British once pretended that the "Centurion" was a "King George V" class to scare the honest Germans. But the situation is different now. Even if the British Royal Navy does have three more "King George V" class ships, it may not be able to scare the Germans. Because the Germans will soon have three more "Veneto" class ships and two "Richelieu" class ships. These are battleships of the same level as the "Bismarck" class. Together with the two "Bismarck" class ships, Germany has 7 super battleships! The UK actually only has two super battleships, the "King George V" and the "Nelson", which makes people desperate just thinking about it...

"In addition, the main force of the Home Fleet, including Nelson, King George V, Counterattack, Formidable, Victory, and Indomitable, all headed south to join Fleet H. Merge! We must not let the Italian and French fleets break through the Strait of Gibraltar!"

Churchill then issued an order that surprised the cabinet ministers present.

"Prime Minister," Alexander, the Minister of the Navy, immediately objected, "if all six ships are sent out, the Home Fleet will only have one battleship, the Ramillies, and no aircraft carrier. If the German High Seas Fleet attacks again, We will then……"

Churchill shook his head and interrupted the Admiralty. He said: "The results of this naval battle have clearly told us that air power is the key to determining the victory of the naval battle! And the range that the shore-based aviation combat radius can cover A surface fleet without overwhelming air superiority is very vulnerable...at least until the equinox."

The "Autumnal Equinox" is the transition point between polar day and polar night in the Arctic. After the "Autumnal Equinox", the Norwegian Sea near the Arctic Circle has long nights and short days, and the climate will become very harsh, and the role of aviation will be greatly reduced.

However, the weather in the English Channel will become very bad after the "Autumn Equinox", making it unsuitable for cross-sea landing operations.

"Prime Minister, what do we do before the autumnal equinox?" Alexander asked.

"Do you still remember that we are developing powerful suicide weapons?" Churchill took two puffs of cigarette, and his eyes slowly swept across the faces of every cabinet minister or senior general in the conference room, and everyone's face was wrinkled. With.

The concept of "suicide weapons" may have some market in Afghanistan and Japan, but it is not popular here in the UK. Because Christianity is against suicide, suicide will lead to hell. Although the British government can package Smith, who "sinked" a German aircraft carrier, as a hero, it is impossible to recruit enough "kamikaze fighters" in the UK. Moreover, openly recruiting such "suicides" may be opposed by the church or devout Christians.

Of course, Churchill also knew that "suicide weapons" were not in line with British culture. Even if he pushed for it, he would not be able to recruit many patriots who were willing to go to hell.

Churchill said: "We didn't really mean it, it was just a hoax to deceive the Germans... It's very common in war to deceive the enemy, isn't it?"

It is very likely that you will go to hell if you commit suicide, but it is not that big of a sin to lie and deceive others. At the worst, you can repent and ask God for forgiveness.

"Of course, Mr. Prime Minister, we must deceive the Germans." The Admiralty nodded.

"So I hope that the Admiralty can come up with a fake human-operated torpedo model within 10 days," Churchill said. "Its appearance and various technical indicators must look the same as the real one, and it must be very easy to implement. It’s called the ‘Fearless Human Torpedo’.”

"Yes, Mr. Prime Minister."

Churchill then looked at Air Force Secretary Sir Sinclair and Aircraft Production Secretary Sir Verbrook. "I also need a fake suicide aircraft. It should be a rear-engine and propeller aircraft, just like the one in the last world war." It’s the same as the F.E.Zb aircraft. The nose part is used to install an armor-piercing warhead. A model and feasible technical indicators must be produced within 10 days. This aircraft is called a ‘dreadnought aircraft’.”