The Rise of the Third Reich

"A million-ton ship!? Is this true? Do you really want to use a million-ton ship as bait?"

Bulganin almost jogged all the way to Ingersoll's commander's cabin. When he saw the two dejected bourgeois naval generals inside, he started questioning them.

General Ingersoll brought an adjutant who spoke Russian, a reactionary second-generation Belarusian, who immediately translated Commissar Bulganin's words into English.

"Oh, this is the only way." Ingersoll replied in a low voice, "The order given to me is to send troops, weapons, ammunition and fuel to Britain at all costs... This is a task that must be completed!"

"So you have to sacrifice a ship of 1 million tons!?" Bulganin thought when he asked, this is 1 million tons! If Kuznetsov dares to say this, he will definitely be arrested and sent to reform through labor! No, there is no need to modify it, just shoot it.

By the way, does "American Political Commissar" Comrade McCarthy know about this? Bulganin thought to himself, should this American assassin who attempted to waste the country's precious property be arrested and sent to the notorious Alcatraz Island Prison for labor reform?

"Isn't it just a cargo ship with a displacement of 1 million tons and more than 300,000 tons of wheat and egg powder," Ingersoll said nonchalantly. "It's nothing."

And more than 300,000 tons of wheat and egg powder? Bulganin was so surprised that he was speechless when he heard what the reactionary Belarusian translator relayed.

So many good things just thrown away so casually? This is so reactionary!

As an American bourgeois military strategist, Admiral Ingersoll is of course reactionary in nature! However, he is now preparing to use 100 ships and more than 300,000 tons of cargo as bait at a time, but he is forced to do so. And it is also in line with the current national conditions of US imperialism... rich people!

A fully loaded ship with a displacement of 1 million tons was a huge asset to the Soviet Union. For Germany, which controls most of the European shipbuilding industry, it is not a small number - if the European Joint Escort Transport Command can be given 1 million tons of ships at one time, Raeder and Dönitz will definitely sleep happily for a week Without sleep.

For the Japanese Empire, which controls most of the sea power in the Pacific, the control of 1 million tons of ships is enough to keep the shameless navy and army at bay for a whole year.

But for the United States of America, known as the Arsenal of Democracy, with an annual output of 100 million tons of steel and 200 million tons of oil. One million tons of merchant ships was one-sixteenth of the Maritime Commission's expected merchant ship construction in 1943 - 19.2 million tons were actually built in 1943.

In October 1942, not long ago, it took a shipyard in Oregon, USA, 10 days to complete a Liberty Ship with a dead weight of 7,000 tons and a full load displacement of 14,350 tons! In November, a shipyard in California took 4 days, 15 hours and 29 minutes to complete a Liberty Ship! And this is not the fastest record in history. The fastest record in history is the construction of a 15,000-ton Victory ship in 28 hours...

In addition, not only is the United States building ships very fast now, but the number of merchant ships lost is far less than planned - because the Germans "accidentally" seized control of the Atlantic Ocean in 1942, the large number of Liberty ships produced under the contract had no chance at all. They were sunk on the Atlantic route and could only be backlogged in the ports and rivers of the United States.

The freighters that Ingersoll is planning to throw to the Germans now are not as high-end as the Liberty Ships. Most of them are old ships built in the 1920s and 1930s. It doesn’t hurt at all to throw it out now, and it’s even less of a problem with the wheat and egg powder shipped to the British on the ship.

The United States is uniquely endowed with large-scale agriculture. Once agriculture develops, there will only be a surplus of food, and there will never be a shortage of food.

Therefore, in the NR21 fleet, grain transport ships are not valuable at all. Before the fleet departed New York Harbor, all more than 250 ships were classified.

The most precious among them are of course the three priceless 80,000-ton luxury cruise ships: Normandie, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth. There are currently 45,000 U.S. officers and soldiers (a total of 108,000) aboard these three cruise ships...one ship is equal to one division! So it must not be lost.

The most important cargo transported by the NR21 fleet is not the weapons and equipment used by the 108,000 US troops, but more than 200,000 tons of high-octane aviation gasoline. With these high-grade gasoline, the British Royal Air Force's Spitfire fighter jets can once again take to the sky to compete with the German Fw-190.

Secondary to the oil tankers are the ships transporting P-51 and P-38 fighter jets. According to the plan, the United States will deploy several fighter wings equipped with P51 and P38 in the UK to cover ports in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In order to transport more troops and supplies to the British mainland in the future - in the Americans' victory plan, the British mainland will be the springboard to counterattack Europe and the starting point for strategic bombing of Germany!

The first priority again is, of course, the arms ship. 108,000 American soldiers carried light weapons with them, but heavy weapons and ammunition were carried on arms ships. If it is lost, then General Patton will have no choice but to lead his men to attack the white soldiers.

In addition, there are also some goods shipped to the Soviet Union, such as machine tools, aircraft engines, and chemical raw materials (mainly oil refining additives, used to produce high-octane gasoline). These are all things that the Soviet Union urgently needs. After the ships carrying these goods passed through the Denmark Strait, they would be escorted by the Soviets' own Red Navy to Molotovsk.

According to the prior plan, if the night battle on the ice and sea ended in a great victory for the Allied fleet, then of course all the ships would be able to reach their destinations safely. If we can't win, then the American tycoon will have no choice but to lose his car to save his handsome man!

As a result, the wheat and egg powder that should have been used to feed the British people will now become the salty biscuits of the German, French and Italian people.

…

"Commander, those seem to be freighters, they are all freighters!"

The shouts of Colonel Hoffman, captain of the battleship Bismarck, interrupted the thoughts of Major General Lindemann, commander of the 2nd Fleet of the European Combined Fleet, who was discussing the bombardment sequence with the staff.

"What? Are they all freighters?" Lindemann was stunned.

Because it started to rain and sleet on the North Atlantic sea near Iceland from the afternoon of December 10, the plane was unable to take off (such weather is very common in the North Atlantic in autumn and winter). Therefore, Lütjens could only send destroyers equipped with radar to patrol the waters west of Iceland and the Denmark Strait, hoping to find traces of the enemy convoy fleet.

In the early morning of December 12, I finally made a discovery. A huge fleet composed of more than dozens of ships (dozens actually means a lot, radar these days can only measure roughly), headed south from Greenland, apparently preparing to break into Reykjavik .

So the main force of the European combined fleet lurking in the waters south of Iceland immediately headed north to prepare for another fleet battle near the port of Reykjavik. This was inevitable in Lütjens.

But the development of things was somewhat unexpected. This huge fleet did not go to Reykjavik, but split into five and headed straight for Northern Ireland.

And Lütjens didn't find anything wrong - the wealthy man's thinking was something the knight couldn't understand. So he divided his fleet into five battle groups to pursue them. The 2nd Fleet commanded by Rear Admiral Lindemann soon caught up with one of the fleets, but he did not immediately order to fire, but sent a destroyer to approach for reconnaissance (because it was still windy and snowy, the plane could not take off).

As soon as the flares were fired, it was discovered that something was wrong. The other party had no warships to escort them, they were all merchant ships!

"Commander, see for yourself."

Following the direction of Colonel Hoffman's finger, Major General Lindemann raised his telescope and took a look. He saw a 10,000-ton cargo ship floating on the water under the bright light of flares on the sea, and the mast was slowly rising. White flag.

"White flag, this is..."

"Are you going to surrender?" Colonel Hoffman said in disbelief, "The Americans are going to surrender."

"Sir, they are signaling!" a staff officer on the Bismarck yelled, "The content seems to be... We are the American merchant ship Davis, and we are surrendering to your army. There are no military personnel on board, and everything we are transporting is... It's flour and eggs. All sailors are German-American civilians. I hope you will treat them properly in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of Geneva..."

Really... surrendered?

At this time, everyone in the bridge of the Bismarck was stunned. They actually captured 1, no, a whole 20 American freighters! And it's also filled with food... What on earth is going on?

"What? A hundred American ships loaded with flour and eggs surrendered to us? Klaus, are you talking in your sleep?"

Reich Marshal Hersmann learned this shocking news from his adjutant Stauffenberg while having breakfast in the early morning of December 12.

"Your Excellency, Imperial Marshal, I am not talking in my sleep. Marshal Redl told me this personally. He still wants to talk to you on the phone." As he spoke, Colonel Stauffenberg waved to a German soldier waiting at the door of the restaurant. , the latter brought Hessman a telephone with a trailing cord on the same tray.

Picking up the phone receiver, Hessman heard the overjoyed voice of Marshal Redl: "Marshal Imperial, we have achieved another historic victory and captured 100 American freighters, each of which was filled with food... Now the Transport Escort Command has much more resources, and it also has the capacity to send an expeditionary force to South Africa.”

This is real? Lütjens actually picked up 100 ships full of food! Hessmann thought to himself, this guy is really lucky to have escaped the "Bismarck disaster"!