69novels Chapter 868
Chapter 868
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Lütjens’s squadron went south, it encountered an enemy fleet before reaching its target area.
The two sides met in the waters 600 kilometers east of Maple Leaf Country, and then started fighting!
Lütjens’s squadron has a total of four battleships, two Bismarck-class battleships and two Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers.
And their opponent is none other than the fleet that never sets!
This fleet that never sets has a total of five battleships and an aircraft carrier, as well as several cruisers and some destroyers!
In terms of quantity, the fleet that never sets actually has a numerical advantage, and they even have a killer weapon like an aircraft carrier!
But in terms of quality, the strength of the remaining fleet of the never-setting sun is not strong. Their elite forces were either lost in the Battle of the Never-Setting Sun or were completely wiped out during the Battle of the Mediterranean!
Some of these preserved warships are the old ones of the Far East Fleet, and the other part is the escort warships brought by King George V when he escaped!
Among them, the quality of the warships brought by King George V is obviously higher. The warships of the Far East Fleet are basically old-fashioned warships, which are much behind the latest German warships!
There is no way around it. During the First World War, the fighting in Europe was very fierce, causing the sun never sets to shrink the main force of its navy back to Europe to fight this world war! In the Far East, the German fleet here is very small and weak, so the Far East Fleet does not have any combat pressure. Without too much pressure, their weapons replacement is ranked last. After the Home Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet replaced the new warships, they can get their turn!
However, due to the restrictions of the Washington Naval Treaty and the Fog City Naval Treaty, the construction of the new warships of the sun never set was completely disrupted. Therefore, the replacement plan of the main battleships of the Far East Fleet has never had the opportunity to be implemented, which made them still use the backward warships after the start of World War II.
These warships can still be used in Asia. After all, the strongest naval force in the Far East happens to be their ally, so they are not a threat.
But these warships are not good enough in other battlefields!
So, after the two sides fought, the situation was a bit one-sided!
The two German Bismarck-class battleships have high defense and high blood, and they are fast!
They rushed and hit hard under the bombing of torpedo planes on the British aircraft carrier, broke through the obstruction of British battleships and cruisers along the way, rushed to the side of the aircraft carrier, and fired two rounds of salvos, causing the only British aircraft carrier to be seriously injured and withdrawn!
Fortunately, this aircraft carrier is different from the German aircraft carrier. It has thicker armor and stronger defense capabilities, and it was not hit in the vitals, so it can still escape!
Coupled with the desperate protection of other warships, it was delayed. It was able to escape back to the port with its body emitting billowing black smoke even when it was seriously injured by the Germans!
However, although the aircraft carrier escaped, the other British warships were not so lucky!
In this naval battle, two of the five British ships were sunk, one was seriously injured, and the remaining two also fled with injuries! Two of the four German warships were injured and withdrew from the battle, and the remaining two continued to move south, seemingly preparing to go to the coastal waters of the Eagle Sauce to carry out a commerce-breaking war!
Since the naval battle took place in the Labrador Sea, this naval battle is also called the Labrador Battle.
The outbreak of the Labrador Battle shocked the Allies. They did not expect that the German army would suddenly come out from the north. They had always thought that the German army would come from the east.
So they placed the Sun Never Sets Fleet with the least troops in the north, and placed the powerful Atlantic Fleet and the Foot Basin Combined Fleet in the middle and south!
However, the sudden emergence of enemies in the north made them realize that their previous judgment was wrong, and the German attack direction was in the north!
At this time, in order to protect their own coastal safety, the Eagle Sauce people quickly recalled their Atlantic Fleet and tried to encircle the German army that had rashly broken in!
As long as they can surround these German warships, they can eat up the other side in their own coastal waters!
The news that the Eagle Sauce got from the British Empire is that this German fleet has four battleships!
All four battleships are the most advanced battleships. Considering that the German army only has a few Bismarck-class battleships and seven or eight Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers, if they can successfully eat it, it will definitely cause heavy damage to the German navy! The
Allied intelligence has a huge deviation here. Due to the fall of the British Empire and the excellent intelligence work of the SS in Europe, the Allied intelligence network in the Third Reich and even in Europe is almost paralyzed!
In this case, most of the intelligence in their hands is old intelligence from a long time ago, and it has not been updated for a long time!
The result of not updating is that they know nothing about the current strength of the Third Reich!
The Third Reich’s navy currently has a total of 8 Bismarck-class battleships and 12 Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers. In addition, they also have two Midway-class aircraft carriers and two Forrestal-class aircraft carriers. The total number of large surface warships of the German army is 24, not counting the Prinz Eugen-class heavy cruisers and large dock landing ships!
The intelligence in the hands of the Allies is about 4% different from the actual strength of the German army. This 40% of the troops have caused huge loopholes and hidden dangers in the plans made by the Allies in advance!
……
“Lütjens is really generous. He dispatched four battleships at once!”
After receiving Lütjens’s call back, Nimitz seemed a little surprised.
He didn’t expect the other party to cooperate with him so much. Not only did he support his plan, but he also dispatched four battleships to mobilize the enemy’s forces and create a good combat environment for himself!
“Now, Lütjens’s squadron has attracted the Atlantic Fleet in the north. Now we only have the navy of the Combined Fleet in the foot basin in front of us!”It is better to break one finger than to hurt ten fingers. Damaging several warships is far less harmful than sinking one warship. There are too many enemy warships. It is not cost-effective to fight hard. Moreover, once the fight starts, the enemy’s reinforcements will soon come up, and then we may be surrounded!
So Nimitz hoped that Lütjens could help him attract some firepower, draw the enemy’s attention, and create a safe combat environment for himself!