Chapter 471 46 Million in Total Destruction?

Amazingly powerful suicide weapon!

Listening to Churchill's words, the ministers and senior generals guarding the cabinet's wartime command center all felt unreal. This is the British Empire. The British Empire fought a "gentleman's war". Who has ever seen a gentleman carrying a bomb and dying with the enemy?

Moreover... the Germans did not make too harsh demands. In the secret negotiations, the Germans only asked to find a husband named Hohenzollern for Princess Elizabeth, and the British Empire to join the European Customs Union at the same time, and then hand over the gold-rich South Africa, and then recognize the territory and sphere of influence that Germany and Italy have already obtained to end the war.

If the Home Fleet is really defeated, what is unacceptable about such peace conditions? Is it worth fighting for South Africa's gold?

Everyone has a little bit of this compromising idea, except Winston Churchill. If Churchill is not the prime minister now, but someone else is leading the empire. It is estimated that if this battle cannot be won, they will ask for peace and admit defeat.

But the current prime minister is Churchill who never compromises! Moreover, as the British Empire was sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire of war and was about to face a catastrophe, the Prime Minister of the Empire, Churchill, gained more and more power.

Due to the passage of the National Defense Act, the British Prime Minister and the Cabinet gained almost dictatorial power, and could requisition any personnel, materials, and industrial and mining enterprises in the British territory in the name of maintaining public security, defending the country, maintaining public order, or effectively conducting any war that His Majesty might participate in!

As Prime Minister, Churchill could intervene in any work he thought was beneficial to the war based on the Act, and could also order the police to arrest anyone he thought was dangerous, and could arbitrarily requisition land and factory materials, and could arbitrarily mobilize funds to requisition personnel. Churchill also had full personnel power and could promote any soldier or civil servant he thought was useful to winning the war.

The power that Churchill now had was theoretically greater than that of Hitler and Hessmann in Germany combined! In the whole world, probably only the Red Tsar in Moscow had more power than him.

And such a powerful British Prime Minister is a person who seems to have an irreconcilable hatred with the German Empire. Except for the false peace talks he approves, anyone who dares to propose peace will be ruthlessly suppressed by him.

Therefore, no one dares to object to Churchill's suggestion to pretend to develop suicide weapons.

"The suicide weapons that need to be developed now are mainly anti-ship weapons!" Churchill said thoughtfully, "We can't let the damn Germans land on the mainland, so we must develop weapons that can deter the Germans. I think manned torpedoes and rocket-propelled bombs are feasible... We should vigorously promote them to make the Germans believe that we are equipping these two weapons in large quantities!"

Manned torpedoes and rocket-propelled bombs? Isn't this too cruel? Several British ministers and senior generals took a breath. When they were thinking about how the Germans would be scared by these two weapons, they found that news of another German fleet came.

"The reconnaissance plane found three more German battleships!?" Churchill asked while smoking a cigar, "Are they the kind of light battlecruisers of more than 20,000 tons?"

"It seems to be the Bismarck, Tirpitz and Gneisenau."

Churchill asked: "What? Then what are those two German aircraft carriers with?"

"It should be two heavy cruisers," replied a Royal Navy rear admiral on duty at the wartime cabinet headquarters, "German heavy cruisers and battleships look very similar, and can only be identified by size. But at sea, due to the lack of reference objects, it is easy to misidentify."

"Then how did the reconnaissance plane determine that they were three German battleships and not heavy cruisers?" Churchill asked somewhat strangely.

"Because they found the battleship Gneisenau, which has only three main gun turrets, so it is easier to identify. Then, with the battleship Gneisenau as a reference, they can recognize that the other two are battleships rather than heavy cruisers."

"So that's how it is." Churchill nodded and ordered, "Then let the Home Fleet and the Coastal Air Defense Command deal with it. It would be best if the remaining German aircraft carrier and these three battleships can be sunk!"

...

"How is it? Can the planes still take off and land?"

"No problem now, maybe after returning It needs to be repaired. Sir. "

"Really? But it looked scary when it exploded!"

"Yes, we are lucky. The bomb was not dropped, but hung on the plane and hit the deck together. Because the area of ​​the plane's head is relatively large and there is no armor-piercing warhead, the penetration is not comparable to that of armor-piercing bombs, and it did not penetrate the armored deck. Otherwise, we would be in big trouble..."

At this time, Vice Admiral Helmut Heyer was standing on the charred armored deck in the middle of the "Seydlitz" and talking to the damage control captain of the aircraft carrier.

The "Seydlitz" was so lucky that it was unbelievable that it was hit by an SBD dive bomber with a 1,000-pound bomb, but it was not even seriously damaged. Although the steel plate at the collision was dented a little and burned black, it was not penetrated after all.

Moreover, when the plane hit, there were no maintenance personnel or planes on the deck. Therefore, the explosion did not cause any casualties, but only damaged the radar on the aircraft carrier, and the shock wave also shattered the glass of the command tower, causing many people to suffer minor injuries. Helmut Heyer's head was also scratched by broken glass, and he bled a lot. He went down to the flight deck to check the damage as soon as he was bandaged.

Now the fierce battle in the air has ended. The results and loss statistics just reported show that the air raid launched by the "British and American planes" seems to have ended in a disastrous defeat. As many as 143 "British and American planes" were shot down, while the German side lost only 12 Fokker Zeros, and the loss of pilots was only 6. In addition, the "Seydlitz" was hit by a plane, and at most it was "broken". The "Admiral Hipper" was hit by a torpedo, but it was not a big deal. Another light cruiser was hit by a 1,000-pound near miss, and the aircraft carrier "Seckt" was hit by two 500-pound near misses, but the problem was not big.

But Helmut Heyer still frowned and returned to the bridge without glass and leaking air everywhere.

"Sir, I received a telegram from the "Bismarck". Admiral Lütjens ordered us to enter the shore-based aircraft protection circle of Bergen as soon as possible."

Colonel Franz Hinze reported to Heyer with a copy of the telegram he had just received. He smiled bitterly and said, "In addition, the admiral ordered us not to launch air strikes on Iceland and the American fleet. But it is allowed to shoot down approaching American aircraft!"

It turned out that the Germans had not yet figured out whether there were any American aircraft in the fleet that attacked them just now. Many pilots and lookouts reported seeing the British concentric circles on the fuselages of SBD and TBD aircraft, and some reported seeing the American round-bottom five-pointed star.

After the "British and American attack aircraft group" retreated, Heyer immediately reported this information to the "Bismarck", and now he finally received the relevant instructions.

"Okay, let's retreat to the southeast." Helmut Heyer sighed, pondered and asked again, "No one said to cancel the combat operation, right?"

"No." Colonel Hinze said, "I don't think the higher-ups will cancel the operation, because they are attacking Gibraltar now. Even if the United States really joins the war, we have to take Gibraltar and close the door to the Mediterranean!"

"That's good!" Helmut Heyer nodded, "Send out Fokker 99 for reconnaissance while retreating. If the SBD and TBD that attacked us just now did not take off from the Faroe Islands, nor were they American aircraft. Then they must have taken off from British aircraft carriers! We have to find them and sink them."

...

"The losses are heavy!"

On the Ark Royal, Somerville was holding the loss statistics report given to him by Colonel Scott and taking a deep breath.

90 SBDs and TBDs were sent out, but only 41 returned, a total of 49 aircraft were lost!

"It's worth it!" Colonel Scott said, "We sank a German aircraft carrier. As long as we sink another one, they will not be able to compete with us for sea control before the two new 30,000-ton aircraft carriers are put into use."

The "they" that Colonel Scott mentioned is not just Germany, but also Italy and France. The number and quality of battleships of Germany, Italy and France have surpassed that of Britain, but Italy and France now have no aircraft carriers, and only Germany has two aircraft carriers. If Britain can sink these two aircraft carriers, then the fleets of Germany, Italy and France will not be able to leave the protection of shore-based aviation for the time being.

"But it is too dangerous to take risks with four aircraft carriers." Somerville shook his head, "We have lost 49 aircraft now, and we don't need four aircraft carriers. First, concentrate all the aircraft on the Royal Ark and the Formidable, and then let the Victory and the Indomitable retreat."

The four aircraft carriers of the C Fleet originally had 150 regular aircraft and 30 reserve aircraft. The Ark Royal had lost a Seafire before, and now it had lost 49 more regular aircraft, leaving only 100 regular aircraft. These 100 aircraft could be fully carried on the Ark Royal and the Formidable.

This arrangement could prevent the Victory and the Indomitable from suffering losses in subsequent operations, but there was also a disadvantage, which was that it took nearly 2 hours to concentrate the aircraft.

Because the Catalina seaplane sent by the Americans to monitor the German aircraft carrier was shot down by the Germans, and the Faroe Islands were being bombarded by German aircraft sent by Bergen, it was temporarily impossible to launch a second wave of attacks, and there was no way to send reconnaissance aircraft. Therefore, after Somerville spent more than an hour to complete the aircraft concentration, the C Fleet had lost the exact location of the German aircraft carrier.