Bismarck

As for the UK, even if they repair the Renown and the two aircraft carriers, and add the intelligence showing that they are building an aircraft carrier and a battleship, they can be completed by the end of the year, but at most they will be at the level of Newcastle.

And since Raeder wants to build a large fleet, there must be a few new ships that will be put into service and fight side by side, right?

It's so bad!!

Bismarck was filled with indignation and even wanted to rush in. Of course, she knew it was useless for her to rush in, but she was also very worried... What if the captain was really sent to a military court?

I turned my ears around and continued eavesdropping...

But Reger, Bismarck thought secretly in his heart, if Lütjens was brought to a military court, you can forget about using your Bismarck!

ps: I’m really sorry, I didn’t update yesterday...apologies

Chapter 250: A Secret

"...Lütjens, you tell me, this is all we have now, let's see how we will fight the next battle!"

Maybe he was tired of scolding after more than an hour, and Lütjens had been standing straight, listening with his head down, expressionless and without any attitude, and Redl's temper had also been worn out.

Redl walked back to his desk, grabbed the cup and took a sip of water, but he continued to stare at Lütjens.

In Bismarck's eyes, the captain organized his words a little and replied expressionlessly: "I suggest that we should continue to attack and keep pressure on the British transportation lines..."

But before he could finish his words, he was rudely interrupted by Redel.

"You are kidding! How can we afford the loss now?! If there is any more loss, what will happen to our war navy? Will you take responsibility for this?!"

Raeder interrupted the captain's statement with a wave of her hand and shouted at her captain.

The spit flew all over the captain's face again.

Lütjens frowned slightly, but still stood straight...

"Why is Redel like this..."

Bismarck was lying on the table downstairs, watching helplessly as Raeder vented his anger everywhere, and the target was precisely his own captain.

Although Raeder roared fiercely and had the aura of a high-ranking admiral, Bismarck looked at the admiral's current appearance and thought of the menopausal aunt he had seen in his previous life, who was always fussing over trivial matters...

"You're too fussy... It's really annoying when men are petty..."

The secretary, who felt sorry for his captain, muttered quietly.

Upstairs, Redel's thunder continued for a long time.

It was not until Raeder was so tired of scolding that he fell on his chair and took a big gulp of water that the captain slowly said, "Your Excellency Marshal, please listen to me. What I mean is that we should continue to use the previous strategy of disrupting trade."

Redl rolled his eyes at Lütjens, but this time he didn't yell at him. Instead, he snorted coldly, "Keep talking!"

Only Bismarck noticed that the captain's address had changed from being called by his first name to being a respectful title.

Your Excellency, Field Marshal, this was inexplicably harsh, but Redel apparently did not notice.

"Yes!" The captain organized his words a little: "The British also suffered heavy losses, and our ships can basically be repaired within one to two months, including the Shane and Gnay, which are equipped with 380mm main guns. In other words, our battleships can restore their peak combat effectiveness in two months at the latest..."

Seeing that Raeder was about to get angry again, Lütjens said hurriedly: "I don't mean that we have to fight the British again! What I mean is that we can continue to use one or two small fleets to attack their supply lines as before. On the one hand, we can threaten their destroyer fleet and support the submarine operations. On the other hand, we can disperse their forces."

As he spoke, he paid attention to Redel's reaction. Seeing that Redel just continued to stare at him but had no intention of speaking out, Lütjens felt a little relieved and walked to a wall with a thick curtain hanging on it.

Next to the curtain, there is a shelf with various small boxes, and next to the shelf, there is a movable handrail ladder with wheels.

The captain reached out and pulled a rope next to the curtain. The huge curtain was slowly pulled open, and Bismarck saw that behind the thick curtain, hanging on the wall behind was a huge Atlantic military chart covered with various markings.

After pulling open the curtain, the captain walked to the side, pulled out something like a pointer from the shelf, then pushed the wheeled ladder to the side of the chart and stood on it - the position he was standing on was exactly the area near Europe on the chart.

Probably knowing what the captain was going to do, Raeder, who was leaning back in his chair, raised his head slightly and looked at the European waters where the captain's pointer was pointing.

"Your Excellency, Marshal, please look." The captain pointed the pointer in his hand at the location of Wilhelmshaven: "According to estimates, in two months, two Bismarck-class ships, two Scharnhorst-class ships and one Zeppelin-class ship will all be repaired. And our enemies will probably have three aircraft carriers, two high-speed battleships and a battlecruiser again..."

Ignoring the flash of disgust in Raeder's eyes when he mentioned Zeppelin, he continued: "At present, we only have two Deutschland-class ships in the Atlantic to distract the British, and the impact on the British is limited. The British only need to send more cruisers and light aircraft carriers to force the two pocket battleships, whose actual combat power is only equivalent to that of heavy cruisers, to stay away from the main routes in the Atlantic. And their main force can be concentrated in Scapa Flow, just like in World War I, locking us in the port and doing nothing!..."

Seeing that Raeder still showed no sign of wanting to interrupt, Lütjens turned around and continued to point at the chart with his pointer: "According to the intelligence we have so far, the British's newly built Glorious-class and King George V will not be completed until October at the earliest, while on our side, the Tirpitz and Zeppelin can be repaired within a month if we rush the work. So, my suggestion is that we should repair these two ships as soon as possible, and then advance to the French coast before the British's new warships are put into service!"

As he explained, the captain's pointer swept across the nautical chart, pointing from the North Sea to the direction of the French Atlantic coast.

Seeing that Raeder's face was turning from gloomy to thunderstormy when Zeppelin was mentioned, the captain quickly explained: "Dönitz is now conducting unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic, but the submarines themselves have very limited search capabilities and are completely insufficient in number. He said that he really needs the Zeppelin's reconnaissance capabilities and large-scale sea control capabilities, and wanted to ask me to loan the Zeppelin to him."

"And if Zeppelin and Tirpitz are stationed in the Atlantic, they can effectively distract the British Navy. Their high-speed ships will only have three aircraft carriers, two battleships and one battlecruiser until the end of this year. Although our forces are weaker than theirs, they are only relatively weak! If we can disperse into three directions, the Atlantic, Norway and the mainland, and support each other to form a pincer attack, the British will also be forced to disperse their forces to monitor us separately. Although they are in an interior position relative to us, as long as they follow us to disperse and attack, due to the lack of total forces, there will definitely be loopholes for us to exploit! And it is difficult for them to send strong reinforcements to fill these loopholes!"

"If they don't fight, we can threaten their maritime shipping! And if they fight, given this situation, we will sooner or later get a more favorable opportunity and try to eliminate their current advantage which is not that big!!"

The captain said this in a resounding voice as he confidently drew back his pointer.

Serious, capable, and courageous, Bismarck cheered silently downstairs. He was indeed his captain. If Raeder were his captain, he would probably go crazy.

Looking at Redel across from him... he seemed petty-minded. And sure enough, the petty-minded Redel objected:

"…If we do this, what is the probability that the large warships will be damaged?"

"Not much. Although the British control Iceland, they have too few warships to threaten our large battleships. Because if they go all out to chase Tirpitz, they will not be able to deal with Bismarck, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, three battleships equipped with 380mm guns. The current situation is that the repair and modification of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau will take at least two months."

"What about Zeppelin? Didn't those guys from the Air Force make any weird requests?"

...What kind of words are these! Bismarck downstairs saw the captain's eyebrows twitch a few times. But after all, he was the immediate superior, so the captain still tried to report in a relatively calm tone: "There is no strange request. The Flensburg they sent was only a colonel, and he died in this naval battle and sank the Royal Ark aircraft carrier."

Upon hearing the story of the war hero, Raeder turned his head and snorted.

Lütjens didn't say anything, and the office fell into silence.

Bismarck looked at him with a look of disgust, and lay on the table looking at Raeder - although the latter didn't know it.

After a long silence, the captain spoke again: "In addition, Your Excellency Marshal, there are a few more things to report."

"You said."

"The first thing is that Top said we need to improve the firepower of our destroyers. The 127mm guns' air defense performance and range are insufficient, and they are very passive in front of the British light cruisers."

"Tell him that the eight new destroyers we are building will be equipped with 150mm main guns." Raeder's answer was still a little absent-minded, and he felt weak.

"The second thing is that our air defense is still not good enough. We may need a 50 to 60 mm medium-caliber anti-aircraft gun, preferably a lightweight and continuous-fire model that can deal with enemy aircraft 8000 meters away and 6000 meters high, as a firepower supplement between large-caliber anti-aircraft guns and 37-round machine guns."

"Write a report on this. I want the equipment department to go out and bid."

"The third thing is also something that needs attention. During the naval battle, the air force's radio direction-finding equipment on the Zeppelin discovered that every time we used the Enigma cipher machine to send a telegram, a radio station in a fixed location in the British mainland would send an encrypted telegram within one to two hours. I suspect our code may have been cracked."

Lütjens said with a serious face.

Bismarck downstairs was stunned for a moment, then thought of the records of some things in later generations, and wanted to laugh while holding her stomach. In fact, this matter was completely what she thought of an institution in history, and she took the opportunity to bring it up now to remind the top German military officials.

By the way, let's see if we can put the blame on the captain.

And when she was talking about some things about this organization, the captain and Zeppelin were both confused and no one understood what she was saying.

But she wasn't talking nonsense.

Although it is impossible for anyone to know about this organization at this time...

Of course, before she traveled through time, this organization was no longer a secret, but had become a legend!

Ultra-secret, super secret!

ps: Today is actually chapter 250...250.

Chapter 251: Various Helplessness

"…You mean, there was a problem with our password, which led to your loss this time?"

Redel was a little unhappy and glared at Lütjens.

Although long-term stay in the office and the bureaucratic intrigue have gradually corroded his former ambitions, he is still a naval marshal after all. On the other hand, Tovey's idea of ​​​​ambushing in Newcastle is not difficult to understand.

Well, Raeder thought Lütjens was trying to shirk responsibility.

"You should look for the reason in yourself," he said bluntly.

"No, the result of this battle has nothing to do with the password." Seeing that Raeder was inclined to misunderstand, Lütjens explained. "It's just that I accidentally discovered that there may be a problem with the security of our password, which needs to be paid attention to."

But all he got in return was a cold look from Redel.

The office fell into an eerie silence again...

After a long silence, Raeder finally spoke: "Hurry up with the Tirpitz and Zeppelin. They will leave for France as soon as they leave the factory. Also..." Raeder's tone became stern. "The Zeppelin is in your hands now, which means you are the coordinator between our navy and the air force! You'd better pay attention to the relationship between you and the air force! The Zeppelin cannot be handed over to the air force! It's better to keep the aircraft on it in the hands of the navy!"

Bismarck, who was secretly listening below, couldn't help but spit: "As expected, a politician in military uniform, thinking about this kind of thing all day long..."

Upstairs, Lütjens simply answered Redel's questions indifferently.

"I understand... Also, please pay attention to the password."

"I'll arrange for the Naval Cipher Department and the Military Intelligence Bureau to investigate the code!" Raeder stood up from his chair, finally picked up the report he had thrown at the captain's face two hours ago, and waved at the captain: "I'll take care of what you said, you go down!"

"Yes." Lütjens nodded, turned around, pulled the curtain of the nautical chart, saluted to the marshal, and finally walked out and closed the door.

Behind the closed office door, Redel took the report and threw it to the corner of the table, then sat back on the desk, took a puff of his pipe, and looked at the ceiling, not knowing what he was thinking.

-----

As soon as Lütjens returned to his office, Bismarck, who had been waiting for him, handed his captain a wet towel.

The captain took the towel, wiped his head which was sprayed by the Admiral, sighed slightly, and just as he turned around, he saw the secretary ship brought a cup of coffee and placed it in front of him.

It was steaming hot but not too hot. I guess Bismarck had prepared it for it.

"Redel really went too far!"

Seeing his captain, who had just been waiting upstairs for two hours, drinking up the coffee he had made in one gulp, Bismarck happily put away the cup, walked to the coffee pot to pour another cup of coffee, and at the same time felt sorry for his captain.

Lütjens, who was in a bad mood after just being scolded, smiled when he saw Bismarck's pouting and indignant look.

"We fought so hard on the sea, and no one wanted to suffer such heavy losses! Moreover, it was only a tactical defeat, and it did not cause any serious consequences. The results of the battle were also rich. How could he be so excessive!"

However, as Bismarck was speaking, he was glared at by his own captain.

"Did you use your consciousness to secretly watch the conversation between Redl and me again?" Lütjens stared at his secretary cat unhappily.

"Don't listen to what you shouldn't listen to, don't look at what you shouldn't look at, don't ask what you shouldn't ask, don't say what you shouldn't say. Do you want to be punished by copying the confidentiality regulations ten times!?"

"what?!"

Bismarck was stunned, and while he was distracted, the captain slapped him on the forehead.

"You too, you rely on your ability to listen and watch whatever you want. Some meetings are not for you to watch. Fortunately, I know you don't say anything nonsense, but this is the only thing that makes me feel a little relieved. Apart from this, you don't listen at all!"

The captain glared at his secretary cat and gave her a confidentiality education.

But he was helpless. This girl's ability was there, and it was useless to talk to her. She agreed obediently with her mouth, but he had no way of knowing whether she would use her mental power to sneak out and wander around in the end - although she looked quiet, no one could stop her if she really wanted to sneak out.

Well, the captain actually had the urge to hold his forehead.

But fortunately, this secretary ship is quite well behaved, at least it listens to me...

Looking at the Bismarck in front of him, who was still a little dazed after being patted by him, blinking his beautiful big eyes and staring at him blankly, Lütjens had no choice but to pull out his chair and sit on it, and began to greet his pet Bismarck.

"Why, are you afraid that Redel will send me to a military court?" Lütjens said with a smile.

Bismarck immediately nodded vigorously. Although she was a battleship and seemed almost omnipotent in the eyes of ordinary people, if Raeder really wanted to send Lütjens to a military court, she would have no choice - unless she killed Raeder.

The captain would never allow himself to do this.

"Haha, just believe whatever he says." Lütjens walked out of the office, feeling much better, and said with a smile.

If you want to send a general to a military court, you have to get the consent of the head of state. This time his own troops suffered heavy losses, and the enemy was not much better off. The head of state must be very satisfied with this result, so how could he possibly take action against him?

As for Raeder, Lütjens knew what went wrong.

"We actually fought quite well this time, and Zeppelin is under the Navy's name after all, and it will be glorious for the Navy to show our achievements. If I really had to go to a military court, I would have been taken away by the gendarmerie long ago." He straightened his hat and patted Bismarck's head gently.

"Ah, the hat is crooked." Bismarck "complained" as he straightened his wide-brimmed hat.

"That's right." Lütjens said with a smile: "Don't think that Redl scolds me harshly. In fact, he is just afraid that I will turn to the side that supports the Air Force."

"Hmm..." Bismarck blinked in confusion. "Captain, don't you only support the joint efforts of the navy and the air force? Why are you leaning towards the air force?"

"I support the joint air and sea forces, but Zeppelin is in my hands."

"How is it related to Zeppelin..."

"Now everyone can see that aircraft carriers are good things. Their combat effectiveness is obvious to all. But just because they are good things, everyone wants to get them!"

"Doesn't Redl hate Zeppelin?"

"You heard it just now, didn't you? Didn't you understand that Redl asked me to strengthen my control over Zeppelin?"

“I heard…”