Chapter 551 The Struggle of the Royal Navy

"Two Hindenburg-class ships and two Zeppelin-class ships departed from Wilhelmshaven. Another two Barbarossa-class ships 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, First Sea Lord.

Both knights looked sad because the news that followed was so bad. In the direction of the Middle East and East Africa, the Italian-German combined fleet with three old battleships and the aircraft carriers Seydlitz and Sekt as the core achieved a decisive victory in the Red Sea-Gulf of Aden battlefield, repelling Lieutenant General Phillips. The British Eastern Fleet under his command 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 on the Gulf of Oman. As long as the Germans capture it, the shipping channel from the Persian Gulf to Europe will be completely opened. By then, the oil produced in the Khuzestan Province of Persia will be continuously shipped to Europe and injected into the German war machine.

Moreover, even if Muscat can hold on for the time being. Germany will not be 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 many new oil fields. The large oil fields are so attractive that the whole country European oil companies except the United Kingdom are all trying to join the oil development business in the Sinai Peninsula, Syria, Iraq and Persia. So the restoration and development of oil fields in the Middle East is going very well!

But these are not the worst. The worst news comes from the Far East - the Singapore Fortress, which the British government had high hopes for, fell in February 1942! 130,000 British troops surrendered to a far outnumbered Japanese army in a besieged fortress, performing the most humiliating scene in the history of the British Empire.

After losing the Singapore Fortress, the Strait of Malacca had been opened by the Japanese. After the German-Italian combined fleet captured Socotra Island, it also opened the door to the Indian Ocean. In other words, the maritime communication line between Japan and Germany has now been opened!

Today, the "Hindenburg" class battleships and "Zeppelin" class aircraft carriers that have kept the British on tenterhooks for several months finally show signs of being dispatched. If this fleet is allowed to break into the Atlantic Ocean and the German, Italian, French and Spanish combined fleets in Gibraltar join forces, then the British Empire will really reach its most dangerous moment.

Although Churchill appeared fearless and heroic at the cabinet meeting, he was actually a dead pig who was not afraid of boiling water. When that time comes, even if the United States and the Soviet Union come to the rescue, the British Empire will be a dead pig. After the world war, just wait to be slaughtered and divided!

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

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

In December last year, three battleships including Bismarck, Tirpitz, and Gneisenau, as well as two aircraft carriers including Seydlitz and Sekt, broke through the Denmark Strait and entered the Atlantic Ocean. At that time, because it was still in the arctic night period, the harsh climate in the North Atlantic was not suitable for aircraft carrier 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. It is the time for aircraft carriers to attack.

"Prime Minister, we cannot let the German fleet pass through the Denmark Strait safely this time!" Sir Dudley Pound said, "Once they merge with the fleets of Germany, Italy, France and Spain currently in Gibraltar, they will form a powerful European coalition. Fleet, they will become the overlord of the Atlantic Ocean by then!"

The fleets of Germany, Italy, France and Spain now gathered in Gibraltar have far surpassed the British Royal Navy in terms of quantity and quality of battleships, and are enough to dominate the Atlantic Ocean. However, there is currently no aircraft carrier in Gibraltar, so the battleships gathered there can only move under the cover of land-based aviation and cannot conduct ocean operations.

This is also the reason why the British Home Fleet can still barely control certain sea control rights in the Atlantic Ocean. But if five German aircraft carriers are allowed to break through the Denmark Strait and reach Gibraltar, then the European Combined Fleet will defeat the British Home Fleet effortlessly.

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

"There is a chance!" Dudley Pound did not dare to vouch for it. He considered his words, "Our battleship force is definitely no match. The five Queen Elizabeth-class ships and one Nelson-class ship are too slow to be of use at all. . The remaining King George V only have 14-inch main guns, which are no match for the two Hindenburgs. However, we now have 4 powerful ships including the Glory, the Victory, the Terrible and the Indomitable. fleet aircraft carrier, in addition, the conversion of Aquitania and Berengaria (conversion into aircraft carriers) has been completed, so we now have 6 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 is actually the Kaiser that Germany compensated Britain after World War I) have now been transformed into aircraft carriers, and their power systems have been upgraded to allow They could 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 carry a little less carrier-based aircraft. The "Glorious" and "Victory" among the four "Glorious" class ships 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 currently 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, "carrier-based fighters have been replaced by F4F, and 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 biplanes with SBDs and TBDs 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!"