1 hour later, London.￠￡

"Gentlemen, the German fleet that had sneaked into the North Atlantic from Norway has found traces, and one hour ago they attacked our HZ-11 fleet, and our escort fleet and the US fleet are currently working together to fight their attacks. We need the main fleet to deploy to protect the HZ-11 fleet."

It is an unpleasant thing to be woken up from a dream in the middle of the night, but after hearing the Prime Minister's speech, the people attending the meeting couldn't help but feel excited. It is obvious that the German fleet's goal was to eat the HZ-11 fleet.

"But if the local fleet was deployed as a whole, would there be any problem with our coast's defense?" Navy Secretary Pound frowned. It was very risky to launch the local fleet rashly.

"The problem now is that the Air Force is more important. The HZ-11 fleet not only has 1,000 aircraft we bought from the United States, but more importantly, there are more than 50,000 tons of aluminum ingots and other important metals that we urgently need to make aircraft. We cannot make any mistakes anyway." Churchill said firmly, "That is not all the main force of the German fleet. We can teach them a lesson."

Under the crazy attacks of German warships and submarines, the losses of the British merchant fleet have increased rapidly in recent times. After the fall of Gibraltar, less than 400,000 tons of materials were transported from North America to Britain in October. The already severe war situation in the British Empire was worsened by the shortage of materials. Due to the lack of aluminum, the manufacturing of aircraft encountered great trouble. The fighter jets lost in the Battle of Britain were not replenished, and the strength of the air force relying on to resist the German offensive was weakened.

Moreover, due to the lack of oil, the number of dispatches of the main fleet of the Royal Navy was greatly reduced.

"The question is what if the German fleet in the Bay of Biscay is dispatched to attack our rear?" said Navy Chief of Staff Mantrock, "this is possible for our fleet to suffer significant losses."

"The United States is about to join the war. Even if our fleet is lost, it will be replenished, but the Germans will not have a good life. In the next few months, the threat to our maritime transportation lines will be greatly reduced." Churchill said, "Now the US ship is under attack. I think President Roosevelt has probably found an excuse to join the war."

"Well. The Royal Navy's motto is that if the enemy dares to come, we will find it and sink it. We have no reason to be afraid of the Germans." Navy Secretary Pound said that at any time, he always stood on the side of the Prime Minister and spoke for Churchill, not for the sake of the Navy.

Churchill's suggestion was supported by most people, and soon, the commander of the local fleet, Admiral John Tovey, received orders from London.

He led the main force of the local fleet to leave Scarpaflo.

At the same time, the Royal Navy Express Fleet, headed by three Admiral-class battlecruisers including the "Hood", also left Belfast, which is currently stationed under the command of Lieutenant Admiral Holland.

The special mixed fleet of Austro-Hungarian Air Fleets commanded by Velmotz Yankel, composed of the 2nd and 4th Air Fleets of Austro-Hungary, met with the Chinese fleet operating alone in the waters west of the Madeira Islands, and then wandered aimlessly in the southwest of the Azores for three days, as if to cut off the maritime connection between the British and South America. It was not until dusk on November 30 that it suddenly turned north and sailed at a high speed of 25 knots for a whole night.

The current maritime situation is very clear: the German and Austrian navy has brewed an active maritime offensive, intending to take advantage of the situation where the British were eager to obtain war materials, first attacking the other side's transport fleet and attracting the main force of the British fleet to leave the protection range of local aircraft. Then force it to engage in a large-scale maritime decisive battle.

Such a combat plan was made based on the absolute advantage of the German and Austrian naval strength. Since the Austro-Hungarian fleet entered the Atlantic Ocean to meet with the German fleet, the German and Austrian fleets have been far above the Royal Navy in terms of quantity and tonnage. Of course, they have begun to actively look for opportunities for decisive battles.

In terms of the number of main battleships, Germany has five "Markensen" and five "Germany"-class battleships in this sea area, while the Austro-Hungarian Navy has four "Austrian" class, two "Markensen" class battleships and two "Joint Force" class battleships, plus the only two "Veneto" class battleships that the Italians have, a total of 20 battleships, while the British Royal Navy has four "Queen Elizabeth" class, four "Revenge" class, three "Houd" class, two "Nelson" class and five "George V" class battleships. The total number of battleships is 18, which is not very weaker than the strength of the German and Austrian naval joint forces.

In terms of aircraft carriers, due to the sinking of the Glory, the Invincible is far away in Australia. The Royal Navy currently has ten aircraft carriers, including the Furious, Brave, Ark Royal, Athletic, Glory, Victory, Fear, Inconvenient, Eagle and Hundred-eyed Giant. In fact, the number of aircraft carriers ranks first in the world. But Germany has 6 aircraft carriers, the Austro-Hungarian Navy currently has 9 aircraft carriers, plus two aircraft carriers of the Italian Navy and four aircraft carriers of the Chinese Navy. The Axis Group currently has 21 aircraft carriers, far exceeding the number of Britain.

Although the Japanese Navy also has 10 aircraft carriers, it is rampant in East Asia and the Western Pacific, which has basically nothing to do with the European battlefield.

As a traditional naval power, the British also attached great importance to the development of aircraft carriers. However, after World War I, due to the increasingly recessional economy, the British made two major mistakes in the construction of aircraft carriers. The first was that the aircraft carrier was insufficient tonnage and the displacement was about 15,000 tons. Secondly, due to the use of armored flight decks and hangars, the area of ​​the hangar was greatly reduced and the number of carrier-based aircraft was seriously insufficient. Only the "Ark of Royal" had 72 carrier-based aircraft, and the number of other aircraft carrier-based aircraft was only about 40 plus, which led to a serious lack of attack and defense.

In addition to the Hundred-Eyed Giant, which has now been changed to a training ship, the total of less than 400 carrier-based aircraft aircraft that the UK can fight now, while the Austro-Hungarian Navy is equipped with more than 420 combat aircraft at only four "Romania" class, which is a huge gap.

The only British aircraft carrier Royal, which can adapt to the requirements of modern naval warfare, greatly weakened the underwater armor protection due to the limitations of displacement. The "Zepplin-class aircraft carrier built by the German Navy, whose appearance and structure are similar to that of the Ark Royal, has a displacement of more than 5,600 tons more than it, and both structural strength and underwater protection are much stronger than that of the Ark Royal.

These weaknesses don't seem to be very problematic in normal times, but on the battlefield, they may become fatal defects if infinitely amplified. In another space and time, the Royal Ark was hit by just one torpedo and caused by the defects in underwater protection.

In comparison, the Americans and the Japanese are basically on the right path in building aircraft carriers.

Up to now, the situation at sea has gradually become clear: the British transport fleet is currently about 1,100 nautical miles away from the local area. At present, the main fleet of the Royal Navy has been dispatched, located about 100 nautical miles west of the British coast. Admiral Lukins suffered a secret loss during a battle with the British escort fleet last night. Unexpectedly, his opponent actually owned four battleships. After more than an hour of fierce artillery battle, Admiral Lukins voluntarily withdrew from the battle before dawn.

The order from the German Navy required Lukins to use the range and maneuverability of the battleship to continue to entangle the transport fleet and not dispatch the aircraft carrier to launch an air attack for the time being to attract the main British force to come and support.

The main force of the German-Austrian fleet commanded by Admiral Hans Frankel and Wilhem Marshall set off from St. Nazel to attract the attention of the British and created an illusion for the British that the main force of the German-Austrian fleet, which was still in the Bay of Biscay, could not intercept the retreat of the British main fleet.

The special mixed fleet commanded by General Yankel is a surprise force. It needs to raid more than 1,300 nautical miles in three days and launch a surprise attack on the British local fleet from the flank. According to strict calculations, it takes about 2 days for the British local fleet to arrive at the rescue site, while the Yankel fleet needs to maintain an average of more than 20 knots to sail at high speed before the British fleet enters the local air force defense circle.
Chapter completed!