Chapter 742: I Was Fooled and Got Rich
"A ship of one million tons!? Is this true? Are you really going to use a ship of one million tons as bait?"
Bulganin almost trotted all the way to Ingersoll's commander's cabin. Seeing the two dejected bourgeois naval commanders inside, he questioned them head on.
Admiral Ingersoll, with an adjutant who could speak Russian, was a reactionary second-generation White Russian, and immediately translated Commissar Bulganin's words into English.
"Oh, this is the only way." Ingersoll whispered, "My order 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 one million tons!?" Bulganin thought to himself when he asked the question, this is one million tons! If Kuznetsov dared to say that, he would definitely be arrested for labor reform! No, no reform is needed, just shoot him directly.
By the way, did Comrade McCarthy, the "American Political Commissar", know about this? Bulganin thought, should we take this American assassin who tried to waste the country's precious property to the notorious Alcatraz prison for labor reform?
"It's just a cargo ship with a full load displacement of 1 million tons and more than 300,000 tons of wheat and egg powder," Ingersoll said nonchalantly. "That's nothing."
More than 300,000 tons of wheat and egg powder? Bulganin was so surprised when he heard the White Russian reactionary translator's retelling that he was speechless.
So many good things were just thrown away casually? This is really too reactionary!
As an American bourgeois military strategist, Admiral Ingersoll is of course reactionary in nature! However, he is now preparing to take out 100 ships and more than 300,000 tons of cargo as bait at a time, and he is also forced to do so. And it is also in line with the current national conditions of American imperialism... local tyrants!
A ship with a full load displacement of 1 million tons is simply a huge fortune for the Soviet Union. For Germany, which controls most of the shipbuilding industry in Europe, it is not a small amount - if they can give the European Joint Escort Transport Command 1 million tons of ships at one time, Raeder and Dönitz will be so happy that they can't sleep for a week.
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 make the shameless navy and army idiots fight for a whole year.
But for the United States of America, which is known as the arsenal of democracy and has an annual output of 100 million tons of steel and 200 million tons of oil. 1 million tons of merchant ships is one sixteenth of the expected merchant ship construction volume of the Maritime Commission in 1943 - in history, 19.2 million tons were actually built in 1943.
In October 1942, a shipyard in Oregon, USA, took 10 days to complete a Liberty ship with a deadweight 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 to build a Victory ship of more than 15,000 tons in 28 hours...
In addition, the United States is not only super fast in shipbuilding, but also the number of merchant ships lost is far less than planned-because the Germans "accidentally" seized the Atlantic sea power in 1942, so the large number of Liberty ships produced according to the contract had no chance of being sunk on the Atlantic route and could only be piled up in the ports and rivers of the United States.
And now the freighters that Ingersoll is going to throw to the Germans are not as advanced as the Liberty ships. Most of them are old ships built in the 1920s and 1930s. It is not painful to throw them away now, and it is even less of a problem for the wheat and egg powder shipped to the British on the ship.
The large-scale agriculture in the United States is unique. Once agriculture develops, there will only be a surplus of food, not a shortage of food.
Therefore, in the NR21 fleet, grain transport ships are not worth anything at all. Before the fleet departed from the Port of New York, all the more than 250 ships were classified.
The most valuable of course are the three priceless 80,000-ton luxury cruise ships, the Normandy, the Queen Mary, and the Queen Elizabeth. There are now 45,000 U.S. military officers and soldiers (a total of 108,000) on these three cruise ships... one ship is equivalent to a division! So it must not be lost.
The second-class is the oil tanker. Among the goods transported by the NR21 fleet, the most important is not the weapons and equipment used by the 108,000 U.S. troops, but more than 200,000 tons of high-octane aviation gasoline. With these high-grade gasoline, the Spitfire fighters of the Royal Air Force can take to the sky again and compete with the German Fw-190.
The inferior to the oil tanker is the ship that transports P-51 and P-38 fighters. According to the plan, the United States will deploy several fighter squadrons equipped with P51 and P38 in the UK to cover the ports of Scotland and Northern Ireland. In order to transport more troops and supplies to the UK in the future-in the American victory plan, the UK will be the springboard for the counterattack in Europe and the starting point for the strategic bombing of Germany!
The next most important thing was, of course, the munitions ship. The 108,000 American soldiers carried light weapons with them, but the heavy weapons and ammunition were all loaded on the munitions ship. If it was lost, General Patton would have no choice but to lead his troops to fight the White Army assault.
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 passing through the Denmark Strait, ships carrying these goods would be escorted to Molotovsk by the Soviets' own Red Navy.
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 a result, 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 all the cargo is being transported. 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, Hessmann 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"!