Bismarck

Regarding the daytime robbery, the cat was a little excited about the pirates. After counting the harvest with great interest, Bismarck's expression changed from excitement to a look of laughter...

Sure enough, it is necessary to be thrifty. If you do this foolishly all day long, you will end up spending more than you earn without realizing it.

Although I didn’t lose money in the end, I didn’t make any money after working so hard for so long...

After a day, minus the fuel consumption of the pursuing frigate, each sister had about 16 tons more fuel on average - but this amount of fuel was not enough for her to run for a whole day at a cruising speed of knots!

You have to know that the sisters are big fuel consumers. It is very difficult to support them with the country's financial resources, let alone relying on hunting. Except for Eugen, which has a relatively small tonnage and eats only 200 tons a day, the other three consume more than 300 tons of fuel a day at cruising speed! Now after deducting the "cost", each person has only collected 200 tons of fuel on average, which is not enough for anything...

"We worked so hard to get this little bit of oil... What a loss"

Looking at the "results" of his hard work for the day, Bismarck lowered his head, feeling a little unhappy. Even his furry pointed ears, which had been shaking, now drooped.

Although some people comfort themselves that no matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat.

Sure enough, being a pirate has no future...

The Persian cat was silent for a while, then raised her head slightly and looked across. On a large table opposite her, the captain was holding another document, and then kept looking at the nautical chart and the simple sketch that Grape had "teleported" to him based on Zeppelin's aerial photos, thinking about something.

The more detailed photos are still on Zeppelin's body, but the simple schematic diagram drawn by Grapes with the aid of quick sketching, after omitting a lot of unnecessary "scenery", looks clear at a glance. Although, I always feel that my sister has inexplicably turned into a hamster scanner...

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However, through Zeppelin's aerial reconnaissance and interrogation of prisoners of war, the enemy's situation has now been determined.

The Cape of Good Hope Fortress, the seat of the British South Atlantic Garrison, is headquartered in Simon's Town inside False Bay. The fortress has a large number of defensive facilities including five airports and 64 fortress guns.

The garrison here includes an army of about one South African garrison brigade; the air force has four squadrons of Spitfires, three squadrons of Handsome Warriors, three squadrons of twin-engine bombers, and a reconnaissance aircraft squadron - this is also the main force of the South African Air Force; at the same time, as the headquarters of the South Atlantic Garrison, there are also two heavily armed light cruisers, six destroyers and more than ten frigates - including seven that have been looted and sunk. In addition, a large convoy currently stockpiled in Cape Town Harbor belongs to the covering fleet of eight frigates and six minesweepers, which is now also under the command of the South Atlantic Garrison.

As for the enemy commander, Admiral Algernon Willis, commander of the South Atlantic Garrison, he was once Cunningham's deputy in the Mediterranean Fleet. According to his confession, he was also a battle-hardened and experienced guy.

According to the confessions of the prisoners of war, in order to ensure safety, Willis has concentrated all the more than 40 merchant ships and all the heavy oil fuel including the Cape Town Port at the deepest part of False Bay and the headquarters base of Simon's Town Garrison, placing them under the protection of dozens of fortress guns and guarding them with all kinds of strict defenses!

Because all the merchant ships and fuel are now stored in False Bay, the focus of the intelligence data is on False Bay. According to the various data in hand, there are about five or six artillery batteries scattered from the mouth of the bay to the inside of the bay, with about 10 381 fortress guns and 32 234 fortress guns as the core, forming the three-sided crossfire of the False Bay stronghold, with no blind spots at all!

Although, according to Bismarck's own estimation, this kind of turret in front of her is just a matter of a guided shell with a strong charge to increase the range. As long as it is not a cave-like turret that is buried deep in the mountain and covered tightly by heavy rocks, and because of ballistic factors, it is difficult for even guided shells to hit directly, she is not afraid of this kind of thing.

Although the firing range of the mountain artillery cave is limited, it cannot be destroyed unless it is directly shot into the gun position because it is covered by the mountain. However, the falling angle of the shells from long-range artillery fire is at least ten degrees greater than the firing angle of the turret, so in most cases the shells can only hit the concrete roof outside the artillery cave, which has sufficient defensive power. Even if there are collapsed concrete blocks, they will be blocked by the gun shield structure of the fortress artillery and cannot be directly shot into the artillery cave, so there is no such thing as a one-shot hit...

However... even if she used guided shells, it would take at least two salvos to hit this kind of turrets...

Although hitting one out of two salvos, the hit rate of about 6% for the turret is already an extremely amazing data, you should know that even the turret is very small in size and has a certain degree of protection. As long as it is not a direct hit, it will have no effect! The problem is that the battleship's artillery mode is range coverage rather than precision strike. If the opponent is also a warship of several hundred meters long and dozens of meters high, it is not a big deal. However, when a general battleship and a turret fight, even if they use two base numbers of ammunition, they may not be able to hit a single round.

Moreover, because the forts were built on land, and the firing range of the forts had been pre-calculated with fire control parameters, the accuracy was much higher than that of naval guns. Even if it was estimated, the hit rate of these forts should not be less than 5% even for themselves.

In addition, by interrogating prisoners of war and reviewing the logbooks of the captured frigates, we now have a preliminary understanding of the climatic conditions here.

The wind was strong and the waves were fierce before. Bismarck thought that the Cape of Good Hope was also full of rough waves all year round under the westerly circulation, but that was actually the case hundreds of kilometers south of the Cape of Good Hope. The Benguela Current, which runs from south to north, is the boundary line of the Cape of Good Hope. To the west is the relatively "not too cold" cold current. To the east of the Cape of Good Hope is the Agulhas Current, which extends from the Mozambique Current in the Indian Ocean. Because the tall Table Mountain-Cape of Good Hope Mountains isolate the cold current from the southwest, the coast of Cape Town is more affected by the Agulhas Current, so the climate here is a typical Mediterranean climate, and even in the southern hemisphere winter in May, it is quite mild and pleasant.

Although as long as I think of this, a large shadow of resentment can emerge behind the Persian cat...

"We are burning fuel in the storm, and everyone is vomiting all over the place, while you British are enjoying the sunshine in Cape Town..."

The cat's resentment was very effective. At least Lütjens, who was sitting opposite her and looking at the materials and drawings, inexplicably felt that the temperature in the room had suddenly dropped by several degrees...

"Why is it getting cold...A-choo!"

"Eh? Captain? Are you cold? I'll turn on the heater." Bismarck, who came back to his senses after hearing his captain's sneeze, asked with concern.

"It's okay, forget it. We don't have enough oil right now, so we save as much as we can..."

Lütjens wiped his nose, adjusted his glasses, and continued to read the meteorological data in his hand.

According to the interrogation of prisoners of war and the review of the frigate's logbook and meteorological reference materials, it can be determined that in late May, the weather in Cape Town is generally sunny. Although there are also cloudy days or light to moderate rain, the climate is not bad; the average temperature is 26-10 degrees, and the wind direction is about two-thirds northwest or north wind, and one-third southeast or south wind. The wind force is generally only level two or three, that is, two or three meters per second or three or five meters per second. Combined with the warm and pleasant temperature and the fresh breeze from the sea, not to mention the surprisingly good air quality, even the view from a high place is very broad - but this is bad news for me...

"The fuel problem is still not solved..."

Lütjens rubbed his temples in frustration, and Bismarck quickly brought him another cup of hot coffee. After taking a sip of the coffee, Lütjens still felt that he had no appetite...

After all, fuel is a matter of life and death now...

Although the enemy information also mentioned that the prisoners of war confessed that there seemed to be a "fat sheep" called Port Elizabeth nearby, and it was even said that there were more than 20 merchant ships in this port, only a few frigates, and even only six fortress guns and three airports. It seemed to be a delicious target, but...

Although the reconnaissance aircraft theoretically has a maximum reconnaissance radius of more than 1200 kilometers, it is well known that the combat efficiency of aviation is proportional to the cube of the distance. In order to avoid British reconnaissance aircraft, the scheduled assembly point is 800 kilometers south of the Cape of Good Hope - not too far, but not too close, which can ensure that the enemy aviation reconnaissance efficiency can only occasionally operate around us.

However, precisely because it is slightly far from the South African coastline, Port Elizabeth is nearly a thousand kilometers away from my location.

In the previous continuous battles, the speed of Bismarck, Tirpitz, and Eugen was only about 62 to knots, which is kilometers per hour. Even if they were at full speed of kilometers, it would take hours to reach the destination. But in hours, would Willis move merchant ships? Evacuate fuel? Or even dispatch aircraft to ambush him? You know, according to the confessions of prisoners of war, the scale of South Africa's air force is not very large, but they can't help but be on guard against others holding back...

Willis, I had heard of him when I was fighting Cunningham in the Mediterranean. He was one of Cunningham's right-hand men and main think tanks. Such a person must have some skills...

The only ports close to him now were the Cape of Good Hope and Port Elizabeth. The Cape of Good Hope was heavily fortified and easy to defend but difficult to attack. But even if it was easy for him to attack Port Elizabeth, if the port was completely empty and he had already used up all the fuel and shells, the consequences would probably not be very good...

You know, if a large ship is sailing at full speed and fighting, it will consume at least 1600 tons of fuel at a time. If there is fuel in this port, it will be fine. If the target is not chosen properly, you will be completely out of ammunition and food.

This was a huge gamble, a gamble on the hope and future of his fleet. If he won, he would go home; if he lost, he would perish. Everyone in the entire fleet depended on the decision of Lütjens alone.

Such pressure forced Lütjens to be cautious.

It seems that as a navy, gambling is still a common thing when battlefield information is not transparent.

If I were Willis, what would I do next...

I'm afraid that all the merchant ships and fuel in Port Elizabeth will be transferred, and then the troops will be concentrated to defend the Cape Town fortress, clearing the countryside to the end and not leaving themselves any loopholes to exploit!

Now I, my subordinates and the girls under me, are probably being pushed into a dead end...

Well, since that’s the case, I won’t think about so many unnecessary things!

Lütjens gritted his teeth secretly and finally made up his mind.

He looked up at Bismarck who was staring at him.

"Eh? Captain, what's the matter?" Seeing Lütjens looking up at him, the well-behaved Persian cat, who had been paying attention to his captain, was stunned for a moment and asked.

"Bismarck, how long is it until the rendezvous time of twelve o'clock at night?"

"It's half past eleven now. They are almost here." Bismarck glanced at the clock and replied, "Captain, what's the matter?"

"Yes, tell them to come to the meeting as soon as they meet up!" Lütjens stood up, drank the cold coffee that Bismarck had brewed for him, then grabbed the materials on the table and walked out: "I'll be waiting for them in the conference room. Tell them that I have a bold idea that requires everyone to unite as one to accomplish..."

Chapter 664: Plan Implementation

May 20th was a good day for Admiral Willis, but also a strange day.

Two good news and one bad news which was probably not that bad news were placed on his desk at the same time.

There were two pieces of good news. The first piece of good news was that although he had lost seven of the frigates he had sent out to set up a cordon the day before, the remaining seven had safely returned to the port. The other piece of good news was that according to the reconnaissance aircraft's detection in the morning, Lütjens did not sail towards Port Elizabeth, but was about 700 kilometers southwest of him, heading due northwest at a speed of 16 knots. As a naval admiral with decades of military experience, Willis did not even need to look at the nautical charts. He could easily determine from Lütjens's position and direction that it was heading towards St. Helena and Ascension Island in the mid-Atlantic.

In contrast, the bad news, which is not sure whether it is bad news or not, is that according to Lütjens's course, he and his German fleet are getting closer and closer to the Cape of Good Hope Fortress at a speed of 16 kilometers per hour. According to this judgment, by the time the sun sets, Lütjens' fleet will be 500 kilometers away from the Cape of Good Hope Fortress at the closest point - if Lütjens really attacks the Cape of Good Hope Fortress, kilometers means seven hours of time for those evil spirits at full speed.

But so what?

You know, the Cape of Good Hope Fortress here has a garrison fleet, sixty-four fortress guns, eleven air force squadrons, and five airports!

Even though the 42 fortress guns in False Bay were separated from the battery on Robben Island in the Cape Town city area, it was still an indestructible battle fortress.

"Hey, it seems that Lütjens was just bluffing yesterday. If that's all, then they probably don't have enough fuel." Putting the information in his hand aside, Willis pursed his chin, and his mood seemed to have improved.

"Then, they will only have two choices next. Either leave or take a risk! However... from the perspective of the office of Cape of Good Hope Fortress, even if they want to take a risk, I am not afraid!"

Admiral Willis is still very confident in the defensive strength of his garrison.

In addition, relying on the altitude of Table Mountain-Cape of Good Hope Mountains, Cape of Good Hope Fortress has set up several radar stations here, which constitute the eyes of the fortress's early warning! As the saying goes, the higher you stand, the farther you can see. These radar stations can detect the sea at a distance of 120 to 150 kilometers, and the air detection distance is more than 240 kilometers. Even if there is a legendary Edelweiss Witch who is invincible in the air among the evil spirits under Lütjens, and his long-range reconnaissance aircraft brigade has suffered heavy losses in the past two days, he is confident that with these radar stations, it is impossible for Lütjens to sneak attack him.

What? Electronic jamming? Stupid, if the radar was jammed, it must be Lütjens who came. If you found out that he came, wouldn't you just raise the alarm?

Wait...what else? What if they harass us? You bastard, there are so many people in the fortress, and they are all waiting for the opportunity. Can't you just take turns to be on duty and rest?

Really, do you really think that fighting a war depends on those so-called "magic tricks" that can't be put on the table? Do you really think that the military's regulations, plans and military laws and disciplines are for what?

but……

After all, the Lütjens fleet has made great achievements in battle. If it were a little safer...

Forget it, I will send a telegram to my old boss, Marshal Cunningham, asking him to coordinate and borrow some planes from the East Africa-Indian Ocean Theater next door as reinforcements to ensure that everything is foolproof. Although, if these reinforcements fly over from East Africa, it is estimated that they will not arrive until at least tomorrow afternoon.

So from tonight to tomorrow morning, you still have to keep a close eye on yourself.

"Come here, pass the order, the fortress enters level one alert! Also, connect me to the London Naval Headquarters..."

Admiral Willis stood up from behind his desk, gave orders to the secretary beside him, grabbed the military cap on the table and put it on his head, pushed open the door and walked out of the office, striding towards the telegraph confidential room.

........................

On the battleship Bismarck, the lights in the conference room were on all night, and the noise and roaring that could be faintly heard through the thick door panels also echoed throughout the corridor all night. When daybreak came, the roaring in the conference room gradually subsided.

When a group of captains and secretaries walked out of the open conference room door in pairs to eat breakfast, the staff and service soldiers standing outside were very surprised to find that their faces and temperaments, which were originally different, were almost exactly the same - no matter whether they were men or women before, they were all Spartans now! And they were Spartans with dark circles under their eyes! The only exception was the commander of his own fleet who looked helpless but relaxed...

Under the astonished eyes of the officers and soldiers on the ship, three men, four women, seven Spartans and the fleet commander Lütjens, a total of eight people, with dark circles under their eyes like some kind of oriental bear creature, danced with a mechanical dance that was unique to those who were half asleep and half awake and extremely tired, and staggered from the meeting room of the fleet headquarters to the dining room as if they had lost their moral integrity, and each of them grabbed a loaf of bread in his hand.

They smeared some butter and jam, stuffed them into their mouths, grabbed a cup of coffee, and then moved their bulging cheeks, turned around, and continued to sway in the corridor to perform free Spartan zombie steps and skateboard shoes for the confused sailors. Except for Bismarck who helped his captain back to the lounge, the others slid down to the deck to take the shuttle boat.

After all, they worked all night to plan a battle, and now they are exhausted. If they don't have the support of the ship girl, they will definitely fall down the stairs.

On the faces of the Spartans, the "spirit of the meeting" last night was still echoing in their ears...

"This...this is too crazy!"

"We only have so many people now..."

"Although it does seem that now is the time to go all out, but..."

"Hahaha, when do you think I will take the initiative to fight a battle that I'm not sure of winning... Well, since you all have questions, I'll explain it in detail..."

Now, in their ear holes which still seemed to be buzzing, several people could still hear the faint echo of the "heart-wrenching" performance from the night before. One could imagine how crowded the conference room was last night.

On the way down the stairs, Bangtai, Lindemann, and Top, supported by their shipgirls, yawned and tried to swallow the cold, hard bread in their mouths while chatting incoherently:

"(Yawn)... General Bonte, General Lindemann, I have a question for you. Is Commander Lütjens's way of deploying troops so... bizarre and dangerous?"

"The commander has always been cautious in deploying troops. This time he must have really pushed the issue to the limit..."

"...Safe?! But...this...?"

"(Chewing, chewing) Haha, Top, you don't know that the commander is more than just prudent. Sometimes you can even say he is a coward." Lindemann, who was chewing bread and saying "bad things" about his commander, didn't know if he noticed Bonte glaring at him. He continued to say to Top, "But it is because he is such a commander that I fully support this raid on Cape Town!"

"Eh? Why?"

After hearing Lindman's words, not to mention Top, even Bangtai was stunned.

You should know that at this meeting, the person who most actively supported Lütjens' plan to raid Cape Town was not even the Persian Cat who was the secretary ship, but Lindemann!

Now, seeing that Bontai and Top were both stunned, Lindeman raised his head and swallowed the last bit of bread in his mouth. Then he raised his eyebrows, grinned with his big front teeth, which were still sticky with saliva, and said shamelessly but confidently:

"Because the commander's style is as cautious as a hedge, even if the assault on the Cape of Good Hope Fortress is a gamble of life, the commander will only do it if he is certain! Besides, you all heard the simulation in the conference room - I'll tell you the truth, I made a judgment during the military simulation. If we really follow this plan, except for the troublesome air strike at the beginning, I can be sure that we will win, as long as we do our tasks well and cooperate with each other!"

"So, since it's already like this, why should I worry? Why don't I go back and catch up on some sleep now, and then ask them to prepare the things they need for the battle, and then I can go with them after dark!"

As they spoke, the transport boat had been lowered by the sailors of the Bismarck. Lindemann, with dark circles under his eyes and a mysteriously confident look on his face, was the first to jump onto the transport boat with the help of Tirpitz.

After all, there’s a big fight to attend in the evening!

Watching Lindemann jump onto the transport boat, Bontai and Top looked at each other with their two pairs of panda eyes, shook their heads, and also jumped onto the transport boat with the help of Zeppelin and Eugen respectively.

The small transport boat separated from the Bismarck battleship, leaving a pale white trail in the morning light and sailing towards the direction of several other battleships...

Chapter 665: Operation Black Baron

Assault on Cape Fortress

Code name: Operation "Black Baron"!

(PS: Sehenmamuel Roberts, 1682-1722, nicknamed the Black Baronet, was the last pirate king in history. He was famous for formulating the "Ten Commandments of Pirates" and his audacity and recklessness)

Combat deployment:

1. ...The two battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz, commanded by Admiral Lütjens, formed an assault formation and rushed at full speed for kilometers under the cover of night to assault the Cape Town Fortress in False Bay. Under the premise of encountering one or two rounds of air strikes, it was expected to arrive at the outskirts of the Cape Town Fortress at a.m. on May , and then engage the enemy Cape Town Fortress no later than dawn or early morning;

2. The Zeppelin aircraft carrier, commanded by Rear Admiral Bonte, moved with the transport fleet, following the battleship assault formation at an average speed of 109 knots and providing air cover (the Zeppelin currently had 190 BF-87s, FW-s, and JU-s);

3. The Zeppelin and the transport ships were escorted by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen...

Operational precautions: Because it is expected that several breakout operations will still be carried out in the Mid-Atlantic and North Atlantic waters, the consumption of ammunition and aircraft losses must not exceed a certain limit!

Weather forecast for the enemy fortress area: After checking the logbook and captured meteorological data, there should be no bad weather in the Cape of Good Hope area during this season and visibility is very good. The wind direction has a one-third probability of southeast wind and a two-thirds probability of northwest wind, but the wind speed should not exceed level 2 to 3.7 ( meters to meters per second)

Estimated enemy fortress combat power: ...

1. According to Zeppelin's aerial reconnaissance and the confessions of prisoners of war, the fortress built several radar stations based on the Table Mountain-Cape of Good Hope Mountains. According to the altitude of the mountains, the southwest direction with the lowest mountain height is the closest radar search distance. However, even here, the sea search radius is more than 120 kilometers and the air search radius is 200 kilometers...

2. According to the enemy situation, the enemy should have concentrated most of South Africa's remaining air force in the Cape Town Fortress, including at least four Spitfire fighter squadrons, three Handsome Warrior fighter squadrons and three twin-engine bomber squadrons, plus a long-range reconnaissance aircraft squadron...

3. According to Zeppelin's aerial reconnaissance and interrogation of prisoners of war, Willis has concentrated all merchant ships and fuel. About merchant ships are anchored at the northwest corner of Fars Bay, and fuel should be concentrated in Simon's Town, the headquarters of the Cape of Good Hope Fortress, kilometers south of the merchant ship anchorage.