June 11, 1941, 12 noon. 10 Downing Street, London, UK.
Admiral Alexander said in an unusually low tone: "Mr.
Prime Minister, we have lost the battlecruiser USS Hood, the battlecruiser USS Prestige, the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, and the light cruiser USS Fiji.
In addition, the Prince of Wales was completely incapacitated and ran aground in the harbour of Lerwick" At this point, Chancellor Alexander's eyes were already full of tears.
He looked at the fat man who was smoking a cigar as usual, and said: "Mr.
Prime Minister, now the balance between the strength and weakness of the British and German navies may have been reversed, and the Germans have mastered the control of the sea."
As he said this, he heard a gasp in his ears, a gasp from the members of the British Empire's wartime cabinet.
The Admiralty Chancellor himself admitted that the loss of sea power had not occurred since the time when Britain had an Admiralty "We have not lost sea power" Churchill spat out a puff of smoke and said, "the British Empire will not lose sea power now and will not lose sea power, and the sea will always belong to Britain" "But, but," said the Admiralt, shaking his head bitterly, "but we now have only seven battleships, one battlecruiser, and four fleet carriers left."
And the Germans had at least 3 battleships, 4 battlecruisers, 1 fleet carrier, the Italians had 67 battleships, and the French had almost 67 battleships.
And, according to reliable intelligence, the Germans will soon have 2 battleships more powerful than the Bismarck-class and 2 aircraft carriers with a displacement of more than 30,000 tons" Churchill exclaimed: "We will soon also have 2 very powerful Revenge-class fleet aircraft carriers and 3 new King George V class battleships, and the Prince of Wales will soon be repaired."
In addition, we have 2 powerful Lion-class battleships under construction" The "Lion" class battleship was a super battleship that Britain started building before the start of World War II, but it was stopped not long after the start of construction due to the outbreak of World War II and the tight supply of various raw materials.
However, after Britain lost the Battle of the Eastern Mediterranean, Churchill ordered the resumption of the construction of the Lion.
In addition, Churchill ordered the design of a super-battleship "Avantgarde" class that could fight the legendary German 70,000-ton battleship.
However, the "Lion" class does not know when it will be built, and the "avant-garde" class is simply still on the drawings.
Even the No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 ships of the "King George V" class will not be fully completed until the end of June 1942 at the earliest.
In other words, in the next 1012 months, the British Royal Navy will not have any new battleships to join, and it will only be able to use 7 battleships and 1 battlecruiser to deal with more than 20 German, Italian and French battleships.
"But we don't have enough battleships at our disposal now," said Admiralty Alexander shaking his head, "although we still have an advantage in the number of aircraft carriers, but the German shore-based air force is too strong, and if we don't have enough battleships, we are afraid that we will lose the English Channel."
"No, the English Channel will not be lost," Churchill said with great certainty, "and there is no doubt that we will be able to hold it."
And we will also have enough battleships" "We have enough battleships," the British Admiralty Chancellor widened his eyes.
Churchill nodded, "Yes, we have a Centurion and we can also lease the Utah to the Americans." ” "Centurion and USS Utah" Admiral Alexander was a little crying and laughing, "Prime Minister, these two battleships have long been old and useless. ” Churchill glanced at Alexander, "How can it not be useless Battleships are first and foremost a deterrent strategic weapon, and then a sharp weapon for warfare."
As long as a battleship exists, even if it does not go to war, it is a deterrent" "But these two battleships are too old and not powerful enough."
Neither the battleship "Utah" nor the battleship "Centurion" were in active service, of which the USS Utah was a training ship of the US Navy with a standard displacement of 2.37 million tons.
The "Centurion" is a target ship belonging to the British Royal Navy, and its displacement is about the same as that of the "Utah".
Both battleships were completely obsolete and simply could not go to battle.
Churchill took two puffs of his cigar and thought for himself: "I know they can't fight, but we can camouflage these two battleships, just as we can disguise these two battleships as King George V class in the same way that we camouflage aircraft carriers with tankers this time."
Externally, it was claimed to be the Duke of York and the Anson.
In addition, the Iron Duke does not have to be dismantled, and it can also be pretended to be King George V, which is declared to be a Howe. ” The battleship "Iron Duke" was the No. 1 ship of the "Iron Duke" class, which had long been withdrawn from the front line, and was a training ship of the Royal Navy at the beginning of the world war, and was sunk during the bombing of Scapa Bay on September 3, 39.
Because the sunken place was close to an important shipping lane, it was salvaged.
However, it is not intended to be repaired, but sent to the shipyard to prepare for dismantling.
Fortunately, the demolition work has only just begun, and the hull is still basically intact and can be used for "camouflage".
Since the "Utah", "Centurion" and "Iron Duke" are all 20,000 or several thousand tons of old ships, they are still very different from the 380,000-ton "King George V" class.
Therefore, the disguised "King George V" can only be viewed from a distance, not in detail, let alone on the battlefield.
In the original history, the British used to pretend to be the "King George V" class to scare the honest Germans.
However, the situation is different now, and even if the British Royal Navy does have three more "King George V" class, it will not necessarily scare the Germans.
Because the Germans will soon have 3 more ships of the "Veneto" class and 2 ships of the "Richelieu" class.
These are all battleships of the same grade as the "Bismarck" class.
With the addition of two "Bismarck" classes, the German side has 7 super battleships, while Britain actually has only 2 super battleships "King George V" and "Nelson", which is desperate to think about "In addition, the main forces of the Home Fleet, including the Nelson, King George V, Counterattack, Dreadnought, Victory, and Indomitable, are all heading south and merging with the H Fleet, and we must not allow the Italian and French fleets to break through the Strait of Gibraltar."
Churchill then issued another order that surprised the cabinet ministers present.
"Prime Minister," said Admiral Alexander at once, objected, "if all six ships are sent, there will be only one battleship left in the home fleet, the battleship Ramillis, and there will be no aircraft carriers yet."
If the German High Seas Fleet strikes again, we will" Churchill shook his head and interrupted the Secretary of the Admiralty, saying: "The results of this naval battle have clearly taught us that air power is the key to victory or defeat at sea, and that a surface fleet without overwhelming air superiority is very vulnerable within the combat radius of shore-based aviation, at least before the autumnal equinox." ” The "autumn equinox" is the transition point between the polar day and the polar night in the North Pole, after the "autumn equinox", the Norwegian Sea near the North Pole is the length of the night and the day is short, and the climate will become very bad, and the role of aviation will be greatly reduced.
However, after the "autumn equinox", the weather in the English Channel will also become very bad, and it is not suitable for sea-crossing and landing operations.
"Prime Minister, then what do we do before the autumnal equinox" Alexander asked.
"Do you remember that we were developing a powerful suicide weapon" Churchill took two puffs of his cigarette and slowly swept his gaze over the faces of every cabinet minister or senior general in the room, everyone's face wrinkled.
The concept of "suicide weapons" may have some market in Afghanistan and Japan, but not so well in Britain.
Because Christianity is against suicide, suicide is to go to hell.
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Although the British government can package Smith, who "crashed and sank" the German aircraft carrier, as a hero, it is unlikely that it will be able to recruit enough "kamikaze" members in Britain.
Moreover, the open recruitment of such "suicides" may be opposed by the church or devout Christians.
Of course, Churchill also knew that "suicide weapons" did not fit British culture, and even if he forced it, he would not be able to recruit a few patriots who were willing to go to hell.
Churchill said: "We don't really want to do that, it's just a hoax to deceive the Germans It's very common to deceive the enemy in war, isn't it" It is very likely that you will go to hell if you commit suicide, but it is not so much of a sin to lie and deceive people, so it is a big deal to repent and ask God for forgiveness.
"Of course, Mr.
Prime Minister, we must deceive the Germans."
The Admiralty Chancellor nodded.
"So I hope that the Admiralty will come up with a model of a fake man-operated torpedo within 10 days," Churchill said, "and it must look the same as the real thing and the technical specifications must be very easy to achieve."
It's called the Dreadnought Man-Torpedo. ” "Yes, Mr.
Prime Minister."
Churchill looked at Sir Sinclair, Secretary of State for the Air Force, and Sir Fbruck, Secretary of State for Aircraft Production, "I also need a fake suicide plane, it should be a rear-engined and propeller-based aircraft, just like the FEZB aircraft in the last world war."
The nose section was used to mount an armor-piercing warhead.
Within 10 days, a model and feasible technical indicators should be produced, and this kind of aircraft is called a dreadnought aircraft. ” t1706231537: