The Rise of the Third Reich

"Two Hindenburg-class and two Zeppelin-class ships are leaving Wilhelmshaven. Two Barbarossa-class and three large aircraft carriers converted from cruise ships are anchored in Bergen..."

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was smoking a cigar while frowning at Viscount Alan Francis Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff and Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, and Sir Dudley Pound, the First Sea Lord.

Both lords were frowning because the news that followed was too bad. In the Middle East and East Africa, the Italian-German joint fleet, with three old battleships and the aircraft carriers Seydlitz and Seckt as its core, won a decisive victory in the Red Sea-Gulf of Aden battlefield, repelled the British Eastern Fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Phillips, and captured the Port of Aden and Socotra Island. At the same time, the German Middle East Army commanded by General Rommel also attacked along the Persian Gulf and has now captured Ras Al Khaimah in the Strait of Hormuz.

Now the only British stronghold in the Middle East is Muscat in the Gulf of Oman. As long as the Germans capture it, the sea route from the Persian Gulf to Europe will be completely opened. At that time, the oil produced in Khuzestan Province of Persia will be continuously shipped to Europe and injected into the German war machine. Moreover, even if Muscat can be defended temporarily. Germany will not be too short of oil now. According to the intelligence detected by MI6, the Europeans have not only repaired the oil fields in the Sinai Peninsula and Kirkuk, Iraq, but also opened up many new oil fields. The large oil fields are so attractive that oil companies in Europe except the UK are trying their best to join the oil development in the Sinai Peninsula, Syria, Iraq and Persia. Therefore, the repair and development of the Middle East oil fields are progressing very smoothly! However, these are not the worst. The worst news comes from the Far East. The Singapore Fortress, which was highly expected by the British government, fell in February 1942! 130,000 British troops surrendered to the Japanese army, which was far smaller than them, in the besieged fortress, performing the most humiliating scene in the history of the British Empire.

After losing the Singapore fortress, the Strait of Malacca has been opened by the Japanese. And after the German-Italian joint fleet captured Socotra Island, it also opened the door to the Indian Ocean. In other words, the sea transportation line between Japan and Germany has now been opened!

And today, the "Hindenburg" class battleships and "Zeppelin" class aircraft carriers, which have made the British nervous for several months, finally showed signs of being deployed. If this fleet breaks into the Atlantic and the German, Italian, French and Spanish joint fleets in Gibraltar meet, then the British Empire will really be at its most dangerous moment.

Although Churchill was fearless and heroic at the cabinet meeting, it was actually a dead pig that was not afraid of boiling water. At that time, even if the United States and the Soviet Union came to rescue, the British Empire would be a dead pig. Just wait to be slaughtered and divided after the world war!

If the British Empire does not want to be a dead pig, the British Royal Navy must stop the two Hindenburg-class battleships, two Barbarossa-class battleships and five aircraft carriers that want to break into the Atlantic.

Churchill was silent for a while, and suddenly asked: "Are we going to watch the German fleet sail through the Denmark Strait as we did in December last year?"

Last December, three battleships, including the Bismarck, Tirpitz, and Gneisenau, and two aircraft carriers, including the Seydlitz and Seeckt, broke through the Denmark Strait and entered the Atlantic. At that time, it was still in the Arctic polar night period, and the climate in the North Atlantic was bad and not suitable for aircraft carriers and aircraft operations. Therefore, the British Royal Navy did nothing and did not send troops to intercept the German fleet.

But now that the vernal equinox has passed, the weather in the North Atlantic has begun to improve, and the days have become longer, which is the time for aircraft carriers to attack.

"Prime Minister, this time we can't let the German fleet pass through the Denmark Strait safely!" Sir Dudley Pound said, "Once they join the German, Italian, French and Spanish fleets currently in Gibraltar, they will form a powerful European joint fleet, and then they will become the overlord of the Atlantic!"

The German, Italian, French and Spanish fleets now gathered in Gibraltar have far surpassed the British Royal Navy in the number and quality of battleships, enough to dominate the Atlantic. However, there is no aircraft carrier in Gibraltar now, so the battleships gathered there can only operate under the cover of land-based aviation and cannot conduct ocean-going operations.

This is also the reason why the British Home Fleet can still barely control a certain degree of sea control in the Atlantic. But if five German aircraft carriers break through the Denmark Strait and arrive in Gibraltar, then the European Joint Fleet will easily defeat the British Home Fleet.

"Can it win?" Churchill looked at Sir Dudley Pound uncertainly.

"There is a chance!" Dudley Pound did not dare to guarantee it. He chose his words carefully. "Our battleship force is definitely no match for them. The five Queen Elizabeth-class ships and one Nelson-class ship are too slow and are of no use at all. The remaining King George V ships only have 14-inch main guns, which are no match for the two Hindenburg-class ships. However, we now have four powerful fleet aircraft carriers, namely the Glorious, Victorious, Terrible and Indomitable. In addition, the reconstruction of the Aquitania and Berengaria (converted into aircraft carriers) has also been completed, so we now have six available aircraft carriers!"

Due to the loss of HMS Brave, HMS Fury and HMS Glorious in the Scapa Flow raid on September 3, 1939, the pace of British aircraft carrier construction accelerated. By March 1942, not only all four "Glorious" class fleet aircraft carriers had been completed, but two strengthened versions of the "Glorious" class "Revenge" and "Indefatigable" were about to be launched.

And for emergency purposes, the British also began to use large cruise ships to convert aircraft carriers. The 45,000-ton Aquitania and the 56,000-ton Berengaria (which was actually the Kaiser compensated by Germany to Britain after World War I) have now been transformed into aircraft carriers, and their power systems have been upgraded to allow them to They can keep up with the fast sailing fleet. There are also four larger "Dreadnought" class aircraft carriers, planned to start construction in 1942.

Therefore, the Home Fleet now has as many as 6 aircraft carriers that can be used for aircraft carrier decisive battles, which can indeed be fought by the fleet led by General Gunther Lütjens.

However, the six British aircraft carriers in the UK are equipped with a little less carrier-based aircraft. Among the four "Glorious" class ships, the "Glorious" and "Victory" each have 36 carrier-based aircraft. The Indomitable has 48 carrier-based aircraft each, the Aquitania has 48 carrier-based aircraft, and the 56,000-ton Berengaria has 60 carrier-based aircraft. There are only 276 carrier-based aircraft on the 6 aircraft carriers.

The reason why these six aircraft carriers have so few carrier-based aircraft is not only because the hangars of these aircraft carriers are not large enough, but also because the British carrier-based aircraft forces have often been completely wiped out in the wars of more than two years. . Therefore, the UK is now very short of excellent carrier-based aircraft pilots, and it is not easy to gather 276 commonly used carrier-based aircraft.

"And we have also replaced all carrier-based aircraft," Dudley Pound continued, "the carrier-based fighters have been replaced by F4F, and the carrier-based bombers and torpedo bombers have been replaced by SBD and TBD. Therefore, the improvement has been greatly improved. The combat effectiveness of the carrier-based aircraft force.”

Replacing those old British bi-wing aircraft with SBD and TBD can certainly improve combat effectiveness. The performance of the Sea Spitfire is actually better than that of the F4F. However, because the UK has lost too many elite pilots, there are currently too few pilots who can safely take off and land Sea Spitfire aircraft equipped with liquid-cooled engines on aircraft carriers. Therefore, the Sea Spitfire Fire always broke the deck, and in the end the Royal Navy simply replaced them with the safer F4F.

"That's good!" Churchill seemed to nod with satisfaction and said solemnly, "I look forward to the Royal Navy bringing a great victory to Britain...because our empire needs a victory so much now."

…

The flag of the Commander-in-Chief of the British Home Fleet flies high on the battleship "King George V". Lord Cunningham, who was only recalled from India in January 1941, immediately moved his flagship from the old and slow battleship "Nelson" to the "George V" with a top speed of 29 knots as soon as he took over the Home Fleet. On board the "King".

This change was not because Sir Cunningham realized the importance of speed in naval battles, but because Sir Cunningham began to regard aircraft carriers as the core of the British Royal Navy.

The "Nelson", with a maximum speed of only 23 knots, cannot keep up with the four "Glorious" class aircraft carriers that can run at 30.5 knots. The "King George V", which can run at 29 knots, can barely keep up with these four fast aircraft carriers. Therefore, the "King George V" can be used as the flagship of a fleet with an aircraft carrier as the core.

"The German aircraft carrier is dispatched!"

In the commander's office of the King George V, Cunningham spoke to his three deputies, Chief of Fleet Staff Rear Admiral Lister, Commander of the Home Fleet Carrier Force Vice Admiral Somerville and Commander of the Home Fleet Battleship Force Lieutenant General Whitworth said: "There may be five aircraft carriers! If they are allowed to break into the Atlantic Ocean and join the Gibraltar fleet, then the next thing our home fleet can do is fight to the death in the English Channel. And with the current situation of both sides "Based on the strength of the battleship force, there is almost no chance of winning the Battle of the English Channel, so we must fight hard in the next few days to more than ten days!"