Bismarck

That fleet has aircraft carriers, and he is also the most accomplished JULAO in the entire German Navy...

It seems that I was rescued by them!

The strafing in the sky was still going on, and after chuckling at the escort destroyer that had been blown half to death, Heisenitz no longer took these three guys seriously.

Even though the escort destroyers have not sunk yet, they are seriously injured and dying! Although if there were three intact ships, I would definitely not be able to win. But now there are three ships like this...2333

But the next moment, Heisenitz felt the submarine under his feet tremble a few times, and then slowly slowed down...

"What's going on? What's going on?! Chief Engineer! What happened to our submarine?!"

Heisenitz quickly grabbed the internal communication microphone on the submarine's command platform. A few minutes later, the chief engineer's sweaty reply came from the headset:

"Captain... Two diesel tanks are damaged and contaminated by seawater. The left diesel engine has been flooded and is broken..."

"Where's the right diesel engine?! Can you tell me if the right diesel engine can be guaranteed?" the furious Heisenitz shouted into the microphone, expecting a satisfactory response. But the reply from the microphone was a weak sentence: "Well... Captain, I'll try my best..."

Hysenitz: "I￥%＆……!"

The diesel engine had been soaked in seawater, which meant that even if it wasn't scrapped, it was almost done for. Although he had another diesel engine, it was no longer safe given the current situation.

Seeing the air force planes above him starting to return, Heisenitz thought for a moment, gritted his teeth, and picked up the phone again. But this time he was not calling the chief engineer who was in charge of the ship's mechanical and electrical systems, but the confidential clerk who was in charge of telegraph transmission and code breaking:

"Confidential officer! Did you destroy our air communication radio?"

"Um... not yet, what's wrong, Captain?..." the confidential officer replied. But before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by his own captain's voice in the microphone: "Don't destroy the things! Connect to the air communication immediately! Our reinforcements are coming! Probably the Zeppelin aircraft carrier! I need to contact them! And right now! Immediately!"

"But... Captain, we don't have the call sign and frequency of the Zeppelin?!" the mechanic said weakly.

"You idiot! Can you call SOS in clear code on the international public frequency? If we don't hurry up, they will leave and we will have to swim back to Biscay Bay, you know?!"

Looking at such a stupid and cowardly subordinate, Heisenitz now wished he could just pick up a stick and inject some naval spirit into him.

（PS:二战盟军反潜机的搜索设备除了搜索通气管的厘米波雷达，以及夜间照射潜艇的利氏探照灯外，1941年就已经有了可以将潜艇声信号传递给五英里内反潜机的声纳浮标——在1942年3月就有使用声纳浮标侦测和攻击德国潜艇的实战记录。机载磁异探测器则是1942年6月出现，1943年开始普及装备的）

Chapter 661: Look at me, Pirate Cat!

More than five hours later, at 1942 a.m. on May 5, 19, Heisenitz and his crew, wrapped in blankets, munching on makeshift hamburgers and drinking kettles of hot coffee, sat on the deck of the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. They watched the U-108 submarine, which had been declared completely abandoned because both of its diesel engine cylinders had been scrapped due to seawater ingress, being pumped out of oil by the Prinz Eugen before it died. They all had mixed feelings and wanted to cry but could not.

"Damn, these guys are more like bandits than real pirates..."

Heisenitz felt like crying now, and almost all of his subordinates had the same expression.

Although the diesel engine of the U-108 submarine was scrapped and could not be repaired in an emergency, and the order to abandon was indeed issued by himself, but... was this guy named Friedrich Karl Topp so hungry? He even didn't let go of the last surplus value on his submarine - nearly tons of diesel contaminated by seawater! Relying on the fact that the steam turbine is an external combustion engine, he is not very afraid of a small amount of seawater mixing with the fuel, so he is still holding a thick pipe, even for this submarine that is about to be abandoned, he is still frantically pumping out diesel!

Although he knew that this brother fleet was also short of fuel, and they had explained the situation to him and his brothers sincerely, he still found it hard to accept that his submarine, which he had to give up, was being ripped off even if it died...

Not to mention, everyone here is a man, and the navy is traditionally a man's world! My brothers and I also believe in fighting heresy, but...

Why is there such a cute girl who obeys you in everything beside you, Top? !

Looking at the half-eaten hamburger in his hand, he resisted the urge to run up to the bridge of the Prinz Eugen with the hamburger in his hand and smash to death the guy in colonel's uniform and blonde twin ponytails who was standing by the railing and maliciously showing off his girlfriend. With mixed feelings, Heisenitz turned his head to the other side - of the three Allied escort destroyers that were bombed before, only one ship was left, and it was being surrounded by the Bismarck and Tirpitz, and then it was being towed by an oil pipeline in front of it, the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, which was pumping away the fuel that the German fleet urgently needed one by one!

These guys were already seriously injured in the previous bombing, and then the deck was swept by the aircraft's machine guns. After the bombing, they had basically lost their combat effectiveness. Seeing that the U-108, which had already pointed its deck guns and bow torpedo tubes towards them and seemed to be ready to beat the drowning dog, they turned around and ran without saying a word.

However... now everyone is seriously injured. Although they can still outrun the U-108, they cannot outrun the aircraft that is chasing them, and the Lütjens fleet that is coming at a speed of knots behind the aircraft.

After one of the destroyers was sunk by an airplane in their hasty escape, the remaining two escort destroyers, which had been riddled with holes from machine gun fire, could no longer run. They had to stand in front of the two battleships and an aircraft carrier that arrived, and obediently let their fuel be sucked away. Then, the German sailors opened their sea valves...

"Hey, so you have come to this day!"

Seeing this scene, Heisenitz felt that his heart was instantly balanced. However, this psychological balance lasted only three seconds, and a somewhat hateful voice came from behind him:

"Hello, Captain Heisenitz, can you tell us what the situation is with the British here at the Cape of Good Hope?"

With a sullen face, he turned around and looked at Top, who had walked behind him without knowing when, and then looked at the cute and obedient blonde girl behind Top, who was as cute as a little rabbit, and then looked at the group of submarine rough men around him, and Heisenitz felt depressed instantly. And he felt that he was getting more and more depressed...

--------At the same time--------

On the bridge of the Bismarck, a beaming Bismarck was reporting to Lütjens, who was also in a better mood, on the success of the robbery of the British escort destroyer...

Speaking of which, resistance is easier than I thought!

The performance, firepower, and even navigation performance of these frigates were so weak that I didn't know where they were. These frigates were hastily built for anti-submarine warfare. Even if they were in good condition, the two 102mm main guns were not even enough to scratch their heads in front of them. As for the ten 20mm machine guns, they were completely inadequate in front of their 50mm twin guns with turret protection. Even in terms of defense, it was a question whether these frigates built to the standard of civilian ships could withstand the strafing of their 37mm guns. Not to mention, this ship was not equipped with torpedoes - it didn't even have the qualifications to fight with them.

In fact, the bombing of 500 kg bombs and the strafing of 20 mm machine guns had already riddled this guy with holes! By the time he and Tizi, relying on the speed advantage, approached from the front, the only depth charge launcher that could threaten him had already been firmly locked by the machine guns and the machine guns that the sailors had taken out from the ship's arsenal...

(According to the original English text, the Jianghe-class ship type name was Frigte frigate from the beginning, not DE escort destroyer...)

However, such a guy, with a standard displacement of 1350 tons and a full load displacement of 1800 tons, can actually carry a full 650 tons of fuel when fully loaded! Even though it has been active at sea for several days, the fuel looted from the two frigates still adds up to more than tons!

Together with the 108 tons of fuel extracted from the abandoned U- submarine, this round not only offset the tons of fuel consumed in the previous five or six hours of high-speed sailing, but also made a small profit of tons - although it was not much more than before, for the Eastern Expeditionary Fleet, which now measured fuel in drops, this was already a small fortune!

Bismarck, who had made a small fortune, felt very happy, and even her expression became lively - although she was always smiling foolishly.

More importantly, from the previous reconnaissance reports of the reconnaissance aircraft and the statement of the submarine captain, it is not known whether it is to ensure the safety of the sea area or to alert the submarine captain who is trying to break out. Anyway, the result is that the activities of the Allied escort destroyers in this area are quite frequent - in other words, be careful of the fat sheep!

Bismarck was so eager to transform himself into a super pirate and rob the Royal Navy's warships.

Stand still and let me drain you dry.

This place is still 190 kilometers away from Cape Town, and it is out of the combat radius of the Spitfire fighters. Although heavy fighters and multi-engine large bombers can also fly here, the combat effectiveness of heavy fighters cannot compete with the heavily armed and heavily armored FW-20 - even if it is only a BF-109 with two 186mm machine guns under the wing, it can still easily deal with the clumsy cakes - in fact, the cakes and bombers have been here before. However, in front of herself and several sisters, the only "gain" of the British is that after paying with a dozen bombers and five or six cakes that can equip half a squadron, they can finally proudly declare that the fighters of the GR- wing have been "reduced" from the original to .

With such a record and the expected gains from the robbery, it is no wonder that the captain, who had been practicing Taoism for fuel to the point of being almost expressionless, now smiles at everyone he sees.

Besides, everyone was actively doing their work. In Bismarck's field of vision, Top and Eugen were talking to the submarine captain to learn about the Allied forces' deployment in this area; Tizi and Lindemann were interrogating the British pilots who had been salvaged from the water. Bismarck even found it funny to see those British pilots, who were listening to a certain unscrupulous hamster grabbing a drawing board and vividly describing the "Ten Tortures of the Qing Dynasty" that he had heard from his side when he was bragging among the sisters.

Zeppelin, who had already raised her kill tally to a very auspicious 299 in air combat, was now directing the ground crew on the flight deck, busy refueling and reloading her planes, and even hung a camera on the cockpit - she had already said hello to Bangtai and herself, and she said she was not satisfied with just robbing a few escort destroyers!

Anyway, in order to block the return route of the escort destroyers from the inner advantage of Cape Town Fortress as close as possible, the fleet will continue to move north for a distance. At that time, she will personally fly the Edelweiss fighter with additional auxiliary fuel tanks and excess fuel to the Cape of Good Hope Fortress at the maximum range to see the British defense deployment and port terrain!

It seems that everyone is very interested in the idea of ​​getting fuel by causing trouble here...

Bismarck was a little excited for taking the lead in instigating the incident. He read the preliminary statistical report and the plans for the next actions of his sisters a little faster than usual. His captain, who was listening to the report, kept nodding his head. After he finished speaking, the captain nodded vigorously and said:

"Everyone has done a great job. We need to keep up the good work! I estimate that before the British commander at the Cape of Good Hope base reacts, we still have one day to rob another wave of their patrols!"

As he spoke, Lütjens' face lit up with a disdainful chuckle: "Do you think I don't know? They must have a large number of merchant ships piled up at the Cape of Good Hope. In addition, their reconnaissance planes were shot down by Zeppelin every time they failed to find us in the past few days. So they can only send out frigates to organize a search when they can't find us. But now we are even closer to the Cape of Good Hope Fortress, and it is impossible for their frigate search line to return to the port! These frigates can only run at a maximum speed of 20 knots. Once they are discovered by Zeppelin's reconnaissance planes, they will be out of our hands!"

"Besides, their commander will be even more cautious. As long as we move away to the northwest, they will lose track of us again! By then... they will be talking nonsense!"

Lütjens, with a bandit-like face, looked confidently at the pirate cat standing next to him. His old face, which had always been expressionless, now showed an indescribable glow of energy.

But such a bandit-like captain made Persian Cat look like he had boarded a pirate ship by mistake...

Chapter 662: Shameless people are invincible

It was late at night, but the command center of the Cape of Good Hope Fortress was still brightly lit. Soldiers in neat military uniforms came and went, but they did not say a word when they met each other, only nodded slightly to each other.

There was a tense, solemn and depressing atmosphere in the command post.

Behind the main seat in the command post, Admiral Algernon Willis, commander of the South Atlantic Garrison, sat behind a table with his chin in his hand with a depressed look on his face. He looked at the combat report in front of him with such anger that his face turned red, and even wisps of black smoke began to come out of his head.

"I really didn't expect that the old guy Lütjens's moral integrity and operations could be so bad..."

In the morning, one of his frigate squadrons reported that they were bombed by Zeppelin while encircling a German submarine and were forced to abandon the submarine and evacuate. More than five hours after the evacuation, they were caught up by the Lütjens fleet...

Although he had sent out the air force to fight them in order to cover the frigate's evacuation, the result was not very ideal - the only gain was probably confirming the location of Lütjens' fleet.

However, considering the extremely abnormal combat effectiveness of the evil spirits in Lütjens' fleet, he never expected that the Cape of Good Hope Fortress alone could stop Lütjens's daydream, so this combat result was still acceptable.

In fact, in order to detect Lütjens's movements, he had sent out all his frigates from the beginning. These frigates were deployed from south to north, and they were scattered to form a cordon. This cordon was perpendicular to the direction of Lütjens's fleet's breakout from east to west, so theoretically, even if these poor small boats would suffer losses in front of Lütjens, he thought that it would only be a few worthless small boats that could be built in a large number in small river factories in Britain and the United States within a month.

After all, kindness does not dictate military affairs, and justice does not dictate wealth. To a certain extent, as an admiral, one must be aware of making such decisions - in order to win the war, some soldiers must be sacrificed...

However, the following script was a little wrong. It should be said that since Lütjens appeared, the script in his hand has never been right...

And it was only until just now that I discovered something with great regret - Lütjens' behavior told me that if a person has no shame and has no bottom line, he can actually do this... invincible.

From 190: a.m. to now, it is already dark. In just these twelve hours, four more frigates scattered on the search cordon have been damaged. These frigates are located in a normal route, so it is impossible for them to run into Lütjens! Moreover, these frigates were first damaged by the bombs dropped by the FW-, and were easily caught up by the evil spirits under Lütjens without being able to escape. Moreover, the last telegrams sent by these frigates before they "died in battle" showed that the Germans actually separated the evil spirits and chased these frigates that could no longer escape!

At that time, his mind was confused: What is Lütjens doing? !

Of course, now that a day has passed, his men have already found out that Lütjens is really stealing oil! And he has already stolen four frigates!

The Jianghe-class frigate has a fuel carrying capacity of 630 tons. Even if the consumed fuel is deducted, the four frigates have at least "contributed" nearly tons of fuel to Lütjens...

"This... the enemy has lost all sense of morality... what a bastard!!"

When he confirmed that the frigate had been robbed, Willis punched the table in anger - and his hand hurt...

It would have been fine if he had just robbed merchant ships, but he had never imagined that there was actually the idea of ​​robbing warships!

What is even more suffocating is that, although everyone says that Lütjens is an isolated army without supplies, no one knows how much fuel Lütjens has left - after all, according to the reconnaissance report, there is still a 10,000-ton oil tanker in Lütjens's fleet.

Although it is possible that the tanker was an empty city plan, the American-made 10,000-ton tanker that was probably snatched from East Africa could also be fully loaded with 10,000 tons of heavy fuel oil for ships!

Everyone knew that Lütjens was short of fuel on his way back, but how much fuel did he have? Without knowing this, it was impossible to estimate what he would do next. Even the Mid-Atlantic Garrison was counting on this intelligence to provide a basis for their interception plan.

As generals who have been trained for many years and have rich practical combat experience, everyone knows that war is a matter of national importance, and the matters of life and death and survival must be carefully considered, and that only after careful planning can one have a sufficient chance of winning.

But... without sufficient evidence, how can we "plan before action"? And without sufficient planning and confidence, what is the difference between a battle and gambling?!

The scariest thing about the Empty City Plan is the feeling that you can't figure it out at all...

If there really is oil in his tanker.

And what about your own side?

Although the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans were cleared, the British Empire relied on India for its resources. In order to avoid being blackmailed by the United States for more debts, domestic industrial and commercial capital was repeatedly exerting pressure in Parliament to release the merchant ships that were already crowded in the port as soon as possible.

I know that my old superior in the Mediterranean Fleet, Marshal Cunningham, helped me bear a lot of pressure in front of the Prime Minister, but...

People need face, trees need bark, trees cannot live without bark, people without shame are invincible! Now Lütjens has completely thrown the integrity of the navy behind his back...Robbing merchant ships is fine, but he has even robbed frigates!

The robbery even reached the government troops, this is simply...

"Why didn't the design department design a torpedo tube for these frigates?"

----

Admiral Willis, who had a headache, took two deep breaths and forced himself to calm down.

It was already late, and Lütjens's fleet had night fighters, and there was also the Zeppelin crew. The reconnaissance plane had not responded yet, and I was afraid that it had "lost its trace". And judging from the situation during the day, Lütjens was afraid that he would make some big news!

"Could it be Port Elizabeth...? Oh no!"

Admiral Willis's head was instantly covered in cold sweat when he thought of a terrible possibility!

Port Elizabeth, 234 kilometers east of the Cape of Good Hope, is also a large port. However, because the importance of this port is not as great as that of the Cape Town Fortress, the port's defense is also weak, with only three nearby airports and two artillery batteries with six mm fortress guns. Because the terrain here is a small bay, there is not even a breakwater to block warships!

but……

As the commander of the South Atlantic Garrison, Willis knew that there was indeed an escort team transporting resources from the Middle East and India back to the mainland in this port - three destroyers, four frigates, and 21 merchant ships! Among these merchant ships, there happened to be four large tankers fully loaded with Middle Eastern crude oil. What was even more terrifying was that the port's oil depot, with more than a dozen large oil storage tanks, was located on the dock by the sea.

If the Germans really go crazy and want to land and take control of the entire oil tank area...the consequences will be unimaginable!

Heavy oil and crude oil are very viscous and are not afraid of catching fire. Even if you want to pump out heavy oil, you have to heat it to a certain temperature and wait for the viscosity to decrease before you can slowly pump it out. Moreover, there is no emergency oil storage point here. This Elizabeth Port is simply a fat sheep with thin skin and a lot of stuffing - the kind that will stand still and never run away!

Thinking of this scene and looking at the information in his hand, Willis broke out in a cold sweat!

What he now holds in his hand is the last piece of information that can confirm Lütjens' location, but even so, this is only information from three hours ago. During these three hours, he knew nothing about Lütjens' whereabouts.

According to this intelligence, Lütjens's position three hours ago was about 700 kilometers south of the Cape of Good Hope - this position is already the maximum combat radius of bombers and heavy fighters. And the Zeppelin aircraft carrier is a deterrent, so it is not a good idea to use the not-so-powerful bombers to carry out air strikes...

What's more serious is that the area is more than 700 kilometers away from them, but only 900 kilometers away from Port Elizabeth! It seems far away, but for the naval fleet, it is not an unreachable distance.

and……

The last piece of information was actually from sunset, and three hours had passed by now! Three hours, at a top speed of thirty-six knots, was enough time for the German evil spirits to run two hundred kilometers!

Lütjens probably didn't know the situation there before, but now they have captured several frigates - the officers and soldiers of these frigates have been traveling in the nearby waters for many years and are very familiar with the ports in this area! If any of them can't stand the torture of the Germans and betrays, then...

"Someone! Give me a message!"

Admiral Willis could no longer sit still. He smashed the pencil in his hand onto the chart table and stood up with a roar: "Send an order immediately! Port Elizabeth should do its best to transfer the fuel from the heavy oil tanks! The docked merchant fleet should also evacuate to the Indian Ocean immediately! Also, all ports should be put on the highest alert! In addition, send out all reconnaissance aircraft squadrons to search for Lütjens' movements - give priority to searching the southwest and southeast directions! Lütjens must be found!"

"But...but General, our garrison only has one squadron of reconnaissance planes, and there are only about ten left now..." A subordinate flipped through the notebook in his hand and reported with a sad face.

"Ten? I tell you, even if there is only one left, you have to send it out. If that's not enough, send out the bombers and heavy fighters as well!" Looking at his subordinate who was still not enlightened, Willis grabbed his collar and yelled at the poor staff member: "How can you plan the next step if you don't even know the location of Lütjens? First of all, I have to know what Lütjens is doing, and then I can estimate what he will do next! What do you learn about tactics in military school? Go and give me orders immediately! Hurry up!"

If the tone in real life could be described by punctuation, then his words now would definitely be a series of exclamation marks.

"Oh, sorry...Yes! Sir, we'll be there right away!"

Seeing their commander's angry expression, the subordinates did not dare to neglect and ran out to execute the order. Amid the beeping of radio waves from the transmitter, the tense atmosphere quickly spread from the headquarters to the entire Cape of Good Hope Fortress, and then expanded to the ports and airports under the jurisdiction of the South Atlantic Garrison, as well as all the Allied fleets operating in the waters under the jurisdiction of the South Atlantic Garrison...

For a moment, the seas around South Africa were in chaos...

Chapter 663: There is no future in being a pirate

While Willis was having a headache about the movements of Bismarck and her crew, Bismarck, which had already looted the enemy frigates in the nearby waters, was reuniting the fleet that had previously dispersed. A conscientious secretary ship had also used WIFI to summarize and organize the sisters' entire day's "robbery", as well as the Allied intelligence and weather and hydrological data collected in the nearby waters, and handed them over to her captain, Lütjens.