Bismarck

In the hot summer, everyone will feel irritable.

But the task still needs to be done...

Looking out the window, it was almost dark - well, actually, since the meeting, the captain had been staring at the war zone map of the Eastern Mediterranean for almost a day...

Seeing his captain desperately trying to think of a way to get himself and everyone else out of this passive situation... the depressed secretary also sorted out his mood, opened the intelligence memo, and began to report the latest intelligence statistics to Lütjens:

"In the Battle of Crete, Zeppelin was able to confirm that he destroyed two enemy aircraft carriers, an anti-aircraft cruiser, and attacked the Warspite. This is something we can confirm ourselves. The Air Force later announced to the large fleet that they had severely damaged two aircraft carriers, hit two battleships, and sunk some light warships..."

"In addition, the reconnaissance report of the Air Force reconnaissance plane that went to Alexandria yesterday said that there are two battleships and an aircraft carrier docked at the Alexandria base, and they should be in a state of deployment. Another battleship seems to be under repair, but it does not seem to affect the combat effectiveness. In addition, there are three cruisers, six destroyers, and several other ships and transport ships in the port... There is no trace of the other two severely damaged enemy aircraft carriers. It is estimated that they went back through the Suez Canal for repairs... In addition, according to the intelligence on the Iraqi operation a while ago, the UK has at least one light aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean..."

"If it wasn't towed away and was just repaired on the spot, it means the damage was not very serious - and by then, your and Tizi's opponents will most likely be these three Queen-class battleships including the Warspite." Lutjens, whose eyes were blurry, sighed, leaned back in his chair, looked up at the ceiling, and then said this lightly.

Bismarck, who was standing aside and sorting documents, was stunned and nodded silently.

In my heart, I have already begun to assess the combat effectiveness of the British Mediterranean Fleet...

"The main gun still has an almost 20% hit rate against air targets at kilometers...?

Although it was a complete trick in the attack mode... However, if it can hit at 20 kilometers, if we consider the time it takes to load the heavy 381 main turret and aim the gun... In other words, even if we turn to the direction of the attacking aircraft group in advance, we have to start aiming at least 25 kilometers away, and it may be a bit of a lead time...

Although in Dunkirk and Newcastle, I, and even Grapes, could hit the target from 20 kilometers away...

However, if it were to happen to the fleet led by his own Zeppelin, it would still make people feel depressed and uncomfortable.

Although Warspite may not be able to outrun me - I hope she doesn't have the ability to increase the output power by 40% by forcibly increasing the pressure by reinforcing the steam pipes like me! But even with that firepower, that firepower and artillery accuracy that is at least comparable to mine and Grapes, not to mention that Warspite can also use the shooting clock to "remotely command" the artillery fire of the other two sister ships of the same class...

This is equivalent to one ship girl commanding three sister ships of the same model at the same time. No one dares to underestimate such firepower output.

If there is remote control guidance shooting, if three Queens are together, even if their speed is not as fast as mine, they can definitely fight against me and Grapes head-on in terms of firepower...

If both sides are injured in the fight, it will be troublesome...

Bismarck quickly shook his head and threw away his thoughts. But when he came to his senses, he was stunned to find that the captain had stood up and walked in front of him. He even had a big hand on his hair and pinched his ears twice...

"Eh? Captain...?"

"Haha, I guess you're having a headache thinking about it." The captain stood up and continued to rub her smooth golden hair with a smile: "Contact General Rommel. Tell him that I, as the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, want to contact him about the situation of the African Corps and how we should coordinate with them."

Bismarck blinked his confused eyes for a moment before he reacted.

"Eh? Captain, have you figured out how to deal with the British?!"

"No." The captain shook his head.

"Eh?"

"It's because I can't think of any good solutions while sitting in the office, so I want to go to the North African front to see if we can improve the situation if we cooperate with the African Corps." Putting away his smile, Lütjens said with a hint of seriousness.

"Yes! Okay, I'll contact the African Legion right away!"

Chapter 423: European Admiral and African Chieftain

Galaza, North Africa.

A field airport under the scorching sun - actually just a small open space in the Gobi Desert that had been slightly leveled and barely big enough for aircraft to take off and land - welcomed a "special" guest: a HE109 passenger plane equipped with a rear machine gun and a self-defense machine gun turret, protected by four BF2T190 fighters with full auxiliary fuel tanks and four FW111T fighters also with full auxiliary fuel tanks.

Moreover, even a busy man like Rommel, who was unruly and running around on the front lines, personally brought his men to the airport to welcome this distinguished guest.

Although Rommel's temporary headquarters was in a field tent next to the airport.

There is really no comparison between the army and the navy, especially in an army headquarters on the front line. The conditions are extremely harsh. On a warship, no matter in which sea area, the commander has his own neat room, but in the army's front-line command headquarters, you can only look for space.

It's okay in drier places, but if it's muddy during the rainy season, the commander will be very unhappy.

Otherwise, how can we talk about naval aristocrats?

The fox stood respectfully at the edge of the runway with a group of subordinates.

There's nothing I can do about it. His military rank is actually two levels higher than mine.

Lieutenant General (Army) vs. Admiral (Navy) or something like that…

Moreover, from the perspective of the other party's authority, although he did not directly supervise him, he still had a certain influence on his actions. Because the African Corps where he was located theoretically belonged to the Italian command system, but in fact it was responsible to the German General Staff and was tacitly allowed by the German and Italian governments and militaries to command the Italian troops in North Africa.

Besides, the coordination of the next battle and the logistics of his African Corps still require the help of this person.

What if this big guy is unhappy and deducts some of my supplies, saying that they have not been transported up, then I will be dumbfounded.

You have to serve until you are happy.

Watching the plane that had slid off the runway and stopped steadily on the apron begin to open its hatch, and the escorting fighters also began to land, Rommel, who was short of supplies, first reacted to feeling sad that his aviation fuel had been reduced by another ten tons. Then he walked to the gangway with a smile on his face, stretched out his hand and walked forward to greet the other party.

Admiral Gunther Lütjens, commander-in-chief of the German Eastern Mediterranean Theater and commander of the Mediterranean Fleet…

Come visit...

--

"Welcome to Africa, General!" said the fox happily, taking off his leather gloves and stretching out his hand.

The conditions of the field airport built in the Gobi Desert are not good. The wind blows in gusts, whistling and blowing yellow sand all over the sky.

As soon as Bismarck got off the plane, he felt like there was a lot of sand in his hair.

It looks like I need to wash my hair when I get home.

"Hello, General Rommel, your military exploits are well-known..."

The captain who got off the plane also stretched out his hand to shake hands with Rommel. But before he could finish his words, a gust of wind blew past, blowing sand into the mouth of the admiral commander of the Mediterranean Fleet...

This welcome ceremony is really special.

Awkward…

Rommel also stood there in a daze, thinking that this was not his fault.

Bismarck, who was standing at the back, wanted to laugh but didn't dare to, so she had to keep her face tight. Fortunately, she had a water bottle with her, so she immediately handed it to her captain so that he could rinse his mouth.

At least in front of outsiders, if he laughed, how would his captain save his dignity...

However, the captain did not want the kettle. He gently pushed the kettle handed to him by the secretary back. Then, while spitting out a mouthful of sand, he laughed with the fox: "I just arrived here from Europe and was given a gift in person. The African continent really welcomes me... Bah, bah, bah..."

"Hehehehe..."

Seeing a certain European admiral eating a mouthful of African sand as soon as he got off the plane, the fox, who was already used to eating sand, could only smile awkwardly...

Although Bismarck didn't know whether this smile was a sympathy for the fellow wanderers, or the commander of the African Corps was gloating over the European admiral's failure...

Bismarck thought Rommel, who was tanning on the front line, was too dark. He must be an African...

Oh, I'm going to eat a spear! I guess this is what Rommel thought in his heart.

-

"Let me introduce the situation in Tobruk..."

Of course, the welcome ceremony was just a small episode, and the real purpose was to listen to the strategic situation.

In the tent of the African Corps headquarters, Rommel personally acted as an introducer and introduced the intelligence of the Tobruk Fortress. Lütjens listened carefully, and Bismarck also took notes carefully.

Desert Fox is indeed an expert, and he also knows that Lütjens and Bismarck are not good at land warfare, so his introduction to the Tobruk Fortress is simple and clear, not verbose at all. He quickly introduced the battle situation in front of him.

The terrain of Tobruk is roughly like a semicircular open-air theater facing north from south, with the lowest point being the port of Tobruk. Surrounding the port are two cliffs that are almost concentric circles and rise in height like stairs. The outermost layer, which is also the top of the stairs, is a plateau with an average altitude of about 150 meters.

The British built a 28-mile (45-kilometer) fortress line on the outermost layer, an average of 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) from the city of Tobruk. It was a permanent fortification system consisting of about 150 reinforced concrete strongholds distributed in two layers, with an average spacing ranging from hundreds of meters to thousands of meters, supplemented by obstacles such as barbed wire, minefields, anti-tank trenches with traps, etc. Moreover, these strongholds were actually composed of three or four bunkers equipped with machine guns, mortars and anti-tank guns - each bunker was a very solid steel-concrete building!

Even a heavy bomb attack must hit directly to be destructive!

That is to say, for each stronghold, at least a few bunkers need to be destroyed accurately before a breakthrough can be made - but the real headache is that these bunkers are not only strong, but also extremely concealed! Most of the main parts are built underground, and the few facilities that need to be built on the ground are all equipped with formally manufactured, camouflaged standardized armored covers! And the camouflage effect is so good that even if you stand in front of them, you can't tell as long as they don't open the cover and shoot at you.

Bismarck listened and felt that it was somewhat similar to tunnel warfare.

Then a brainwashing song suddenly appeared in my mind.

"Underground warfare! Underground warfare, ambushing millions of divine soldiers..."

Cough cough, Bismarck, who couldn't help laughing, saw Lütjens looking at him strangely, so he quickly clenched his fist in front of his mouth and coughed lightly to cover up his embarrassment.

It’s not that the Afrika Korps didn’t have heavy artillery, nor that they couldn’t get the highly accurate Stuka. Even the detailed drawings of the Tobruk Fortress were found by the Italians and sent to Rommel. But...

Looking at the stack of reconnaissance photos handed over by Rommel's adjutant, the reconnaissance plane had obviously flown to a very low altitude, but Bismarck and Lütjens stared at each other with magnifying glasses for a long time, but could not find the fortifications...

Some of them understood, but some of them were dumbfounded...

The Stuka's bombing accuracy is amazing, but you have to be able to see the target to hit it! But with such good camouflage and such hidden fortifications, it's impossible to see it...

If you can't see the target, you're just shooting blindly. Besides, these reinforced concrete fortifications cannot be destroyed unless they are hit directly - but most of the bombs were thrown into the sand without any clue...

Maybe the British are bored and can count how many bombs they dropped or something...

Moreover, there are other bunkers on the left and right sides of these bunkers. Even if one bunker is breached, the bunkers on both wings can completely use firepower to block the breakthrough. It is also possible that there will be other temporary positions to block the attack. Not to mention that there is a second bunker less than two kilometers behind the first bunker that can continue to resist. More importantly, even if the two bunkers are finally broken through, the British still have an armored brigade of about eighty or ninety tanks waiting to "plug the leak" at any time!

Breaking through two layers of fortifications is extremely difficult, and even if they do break through, the losses will probably not be much better. And if they encounter the counterattack of the British armored brigade, which is waiting for the opportunity, the assault troops will definitely suffer a lot if they don't die!

Moreover, the assault troops themselves also need a certain width of the battlefield to deploy their forces - even if it is a concentrated assault, they actually need space to deploy their forces!

The combat effectiveness of soldiers who are not deployed is not even as good as a duck! Just imagine a bunch of tanks stuck in a narrow breakthrough, and then the British bunkers on both sides of the breakthrough, the counterattack armored brigade, and the heavy artillery in the rear come together to attack...

The British commander would probably be happy to play this tower defense game with the German attacking troops...right?

Even though they were not good at land warfare, Lütjens and Bismarck quickly understood after this explanation to a certain fox...

"So, we need to destroy at least a large area of ​​the British bunkers in the front and back layers at a certain section in the breakthrough direction at once, so that there is enough width to ensure that the main force can rush in at once."

"Yes, that's right, and we need to expand it to a width of at least three to five kilometers. Only if we can deploy a division at a time can we defeat the entire British defense system in one fell swoop!" Rommel also smiled bitterly: "I know how to break this damn defense, but I don't have enough gasoline and weapons to do so..."

ps: Ou eats the spear!

Chapter 424: British Air Raid

"How could that be?" Lütjens was a little confused. "As far as I know, the Italian transport ships haven't suffered much loss recently? The average loss rate in the past two months is only 6.5%. Every month, tons of supplies and people can arrive in North Africa..."

"Yes, General, you are right. However, the loss on the way from the port in the rear to here is too great!"

Fox sneered and continued, "Benghazi is only 400 kilometers away from here, but Benghazi's throughput is limited. Even though it is the capital of Cyrenaica, they attacked us and we beat them back, so its infrastructure has been almost rotten. Before the counterattack here, five ships came to deliver supplies to me. I watched them move more than 5,000 tons of supplies. We worked non-stop for 50 hours with the Italians! Fortunately, there were no British warships and planes from Malta to attack our transport team that day, otherwise I don't know if any supplies could be delivered to me!"

"So bad..." Lütjens and Bismarck were stunned.

It took an hour to transport only 100 tons... This efficiency is too low.

Well, it was wartime after all, so we couldn't blame Rommel and his men. After all, the Italians had blown up one of the port facilities when they were in a state of collapse, and the British must have looted one of the port facilities before being driven away by Rommel... The facilities in the port, such as the cranes, must have been blown up long ago...

There are one hundred tons per hour, and I guess they are converting them with all their might.

Although the Italians were very concerned about restoring the port of Benghazi, Rommel re-established the port management agency within five days of reoccupying Benghazi and started the port restoration with great fanfare.

However, construction machinery is in short supply, and fuel is even more so. Most of the cleaning and transportation is done by humans... It would be strange if the efficiency is high!

"We can't help it. Africans are like this. The desert here lacks everything except poisonous snakes, scorpions and bedbugs. Even water is lacking! - To be honest, we can't afford to waste time here! Churchill regards this place as their main battlefield and is desperately sending troops here every day! But on our side... hey."

The dry wind blew continuously, taking away the precious moisture on the ground and making people feel hot all over.

Rommel sighed. After talking for a long time, his mouth was dry. All the moisture was taken away by the hot air. He touched his pocket, took out a deflated tube of toothpaste, squeezed it hard again, squeezed out a little bit of the remaining toothpaste, smeared it around his nostrils and lips, then took a few deep breaths to let the moist air enter his body.

Looking at Lütjens and Bismarck who were looking at him in surprise, the Desert Fox smiled half carefree and half helplessly: "There is no other way. The use of water is strictly restricted in the desert. When it is hot and thirsty, this is the only way to make do... Speaking of which, how could those people above know that logistics in this damn place of Africa is difficult!"

"Yeah... the logistics are not good enough... it's difficult!" Lütjens and Bismarck, who were also sent to an unpopular secondary battlefield to make up the numbers, and whose logistics were also strangled by Raeder, and who had to count even the fuel and the main gun shells by the number, nodded in agreement.

"But we are in trouble, and so are the British. Yesterday, we captured a man from their night raid team. He said they only have half a liter of water a day, and they have to rely on sea transportation for drinking water. They seem to have several high-speed warships that can run at 40 knots, which are specially used for this kind of rat transportation... And after transporting the goods, these guys will bring mines to Benghazi or any place the British think is necessary and throw them everywhere. Then the Italians on our side have to tremble with fear every time to confirm that there are no minefields before entering the port... It's so annoying!"

"Hmm? Probably the three HMS Abdiel-class minelayers? (HMS Abdiel, 4000 tons full load displacement, 3 twin 102mm guns, can carry 136 mines or be converted into cargo holds for express delivery, with a maximum speed of 36-40 knots!)"

Bismarck and Lütjens looked at each other. They knew very well about the things in the sea, and they could roughly guess who in the British Mediterranean Fleet was suitable for doing such a thing.

Speaking of which, I remember when we were supporting Crete last month, we set out from Genoa and encountered a minefield set up by the British at the Strait of Messina...

It was probably these three God-Servant-class minelayers that laid the mines! The narrow-minded Bismarck, who held a grudge, secretly gritted his teeth and memorized this name.

"I am very vindictive!" a woman said in her heart.

Rommel was unaware of this incident and continued to explain the defensive situation of Benghazi to Lütjens.

"I don't know, I think it's called this... and the distance from the British defense line to the port is just beyond the range of our 150 howitzers, so there is no way to interrupt the supply of the port, which is very annoying..." Speaking of Tobruk, which has been trapped but not killed, even though Fox's throat was dry and smoking, he couldn't help but spit with gritted teeth.

"So, to be honest, the war here really can't wait any longer! Although we just dealt a heavy blow to their Tomahawk Plan last month, the British are all mechanized troops, and there is no way to annihilate their main force! After we beat them back, we can run to Egypt, recuperate for a few months, heal our wounds, and continue to come here - our country can't afford this kind of war of attrition!"

Rommel stood up suddenly, and tapped the location of Tobruk on the map with his pointer. It seemed that Rommel's temper began to flare up due to the hot and dry Africa and the long-lasting battle situation...

The captain also stood up and nodded solemnly: "That's about right. We can't afford to delay - the Mediterranean Fleet is trapped inside, and the supplies are insufficient. Now our shells are running out, and three months of supplies will take at least six months..."

"You too..." Rommel was a little stunned. He seemed to hear something from General Lütjens' words.

The captain looked at Rommel seriously, said nothing, but nodded slightly, confirming his doubts.