Imperial Overlord

Germany has almost no bomber units capable of long-range attacks on surface ships, and 80 percent of the attacks that the Air Force can carry out against surface ships comes from Stuka.

The Stuka can be used as a dive bomber, as a cameo as a horizontal bomber, and even modified to carry torpedoes.

But this kind of aircraft has an Achilles heel, that is, the range is too short and too short. It cannot carry out deep bombing, nor can it perform long-range attack missions.

The JU-88 bomber can make up for this shortcoming to a certain extent, but because of the short time, the JU-88 pilots have very limited experience in sea attacks.

Moreover, the JU-88 carrying the bomb actually flew not too far away, and was completely unable to compare with the JU-88 reconnaissance model with an internal fuel tank.

Therefore, the JU-88 taking off from the British airport could hardly launch an attack except to follow the British fleet from a distance and report the whereabouts of the fleet.

Of course, for the German fleet in a strong period, as long as it keeps reconnaissance, it is enough.

Lütjens led the fleet aggressively, and on March 7, the day after the signing of the Anglo-German Armistice Agreement, it had already cut to the inside of the route of the Phillips fleet.

He now has an absolute advantage in the speed of 5 knots, so whether it is fighting or chasing, he seems to be at ease. On the rough sea, the German fleet was breaking through the waves, and the distance between the two fleets was gradually increasing.

"This is not the way to go. The German planes have been following us, and no one knows when the German fleet will arrive." An officer complained irritably.

Compared with the real fight, the long wait is more damaging to people's minds. Not knowing when the battle will break out makes people even more nervous.

"Continue to turn the rudder 15 degrees to the right! Adjust the course to due west! If the German fleet is chasing, let them chase!" Phillips thought for a while and decided to continue changing the course.

Phillips has done everything that he can do. The only thing he can do now is to wait patiently for the moment when the German fleet appears.

As long as his course could continue westward, the closer he was to a safe area. Once approached the United States, Germany's interception will be self-defeating.

"Notify all air defense units to prepare for combat! I'm not worried about the German fleet coming up, but worrying about the Germans launching a surprise attack with fighter jets." Phillips, who had seen the German naval aviation, was most worried about the air defense of his fleet.

The battleship Rodney itself was not a serious battleship design. In order to meet the requirements of a treaty-class battleship, it adopted a bizarre design in which all main guns were in the front of the battleship.

If it adopts the design of double turrets like the French battleships, it can still maintain a close to reasonable posture in design. But the battleship USS Rodney uses a three-turret design, so the shape is more alternative.

Alternative warships have more loopholes in other secondary firepower configurations. The battleship Rodney's anti-aircraft fire was clearly concentrated in the stern, with only small-caliber weapons in the bow and midships.

This strange shape has earned the Rodney the reputation of the largest shallow water gunboat, and naturally it has also brought it the defect of a serious lack of anti-aircraft firepower.

After the modification, the Rodney still has some anti-air weapons, but the Rodney before the modification can really be regarded as a poor creature with weak anti-air weapons.

Because of this, Phillips was very worried about his battleship at this time, and was doing his best to avoid encountering the German fleet.

It is a pity that, unlike the German fleet, he has neither excellent carrier-based aircraft to help him provide long-range reconnaissance warning, nor radar to provide medium-range detection.

Drifting on the sea, the British fleet was like a blind man at this time, not knowing what was happening around him.

On the contrary, Lütjens now knows all the enemy's situation, and even the British navy has changed its course again, and it is clear.

His JU-88 reconnaissance plane has been following behind Phillips, providing the most direct early detection warning.

Now, the straight-line distance between the two sides has actually entered the attack range of Lütjens. But he didn't want to force Phillips to speed up, and he wanted to bring the distance between the two sides as close as possible.

Of course, the forecast given by the weather forecast department is that there will be a rainfall in the Atlantic region in the past few days, which also makes Lutjens more worried.

He was afraid that sudden heavy precipitation would affect his plane. After all, this time the mission still has to rely on carrier-based aircraft to perform.

Compared to the British naval fleet, the German naval fleet has until now feared direct confrontation.

The battleships opened fire on each other at a distance of about 20 kilometers, and attacked their opponents with artillery. Lütjens and even the Supreme Commander of the Navy Redel were very resistant.

Even at this time, the German navy was reluctant to lose a battleship to compete on an equal footing with the British navy and win.

Although Lütjens didn't like it in his heart, his body has honestly accepted the pleasure brought by the carrier-based aircraft revolution.

Enemies who can be eliminated by carrier-based aircraft do not need to take risks and rely on cannons to decide the outcome. This is the transformation of Lütjens and the beginning of the revolution in naval warfare.

"Now take off the carrier-based aircraft and start attacking, and when we fly to the target area, the airborne time will be reduced accordingly." Hines is an expert in this field, and said what Lütjens was worried about.

"In another hour, it will be dark... Once night falls, they may escape our tracking." Lütjens said that he was helpless too.

The German fleet responded fast enough. After they got the news, they prepared the fleet to go to sea in the middle of the night.

The fleet then entered the Atlantic Ocean and began sprinting towards the target area along the way. Even in this case, most of the day on March 7 was wasted.

If the Germans could not launch an attack before evening came, once it entered the night, the most deadly German naval aviation would have no way to take off.

Lütjens was afraid that the equally experienced British navy could get rid of the entanglement and use the cover of night to retreat to the United States, which was already very close.

Once in the United States, the fleet would have escaped, where they could get supplies and travel through the Panama Canal to the Pacific.

Although this route was much farther than the route planned by Phillips before, the German army could not do any interception and interference.

This fleet will easily reach Australia or Burma, both of which are now areas that Germany has no influence on anyway.

"In any case, let's take off a wave of planes to attack... Before it gets dark, I will try to launch two air strikes to slow down the enemy's speed." Hines also knew that if he missed this attack, he might completely Lost the chance to intercept this fleet.

So he dispatched troops to get his plane out as soon as possible. One after another Stuka took off against the sea breeze, and the atmosphere of the entire fleet became more serious as these planes took off.

On the other side, Phillips stood worriedly on the open-air platform of the air search, looking at the JU-88 reconnaissance plane following the fleet in the distance with a telescope.

"They have been behind us for more than three hours. I calculated the distance from Brest to here, and their fleet is almost ready to launch the first wave of attacks." Phillips is very pessimistic about his situation, because Even at full speed westward, he could not escape the interception of the German navy.

The difference in speed between the warships of the two sides is too obvious. If it weren't for this, the Royal Navy's local fleet led by him would have killed the German Navy long ago.

"General, you are too pessimistic. The time you calculated has not added the preparation time required for the fleet to sail, nor the time we will be found." An officer said comfortingly.

In his view, the Germans would never have been able to get to the battlefield so quickly unless they knew the British navy's route and the timing of the rebellion from the start.

As long as the British fleet was determined to seek refuge in the United States, it was impossible for the German fleet to attack the British fleet before dark.

Even at this moment, the commanders of the British navy still have a sense of arrogance. Because Germany, despite its amazing victories in the Atlantic, rarely had a head-on conflict with the British navy.

The heaviest loss of the British navy was caused by an active attack on the German fleet. Therefore, most British naval officers and soldiers did not think that the German navy had the courage to catch up and fight with themselves in a dignified manner~www.wuxiaspot.com~ Such optimism only lasted for 20 minutes, and then it was destroyed by more Germans in the sky. The plane was snuffed out.

One after another, the Stukas, under the guidance of the JU-88 reconnaissance aircraft, arrived at the battlefield without error and began to launch their attacks.

The battle started, and a piercing anti-aircraft alarm sounded on the British battleship. On the battleship Rodney at the forefront, Phillips could only watch helplessly, the aircraft carrier Dreadful was caught in the siege of German aircraft.

"Accelerate! Start the S-type maneuver! Start the air combat, and let the Barham cover the Dreadnought as much as possible!" Now that the battle has begun, all flukes have disappeared. Phillips gave operational orders fluently, and the entire fleet suddenly accelerated.

At around 3:00 pm on March 7, the Phillips fleet and the Lütjens fleet met in the Atlantic, and the two sides immediately launched a fierce battle.

While the cheers of peace were still reverberating over Berlin, a Stuka passed through the dense fire network of tracer rounds and aimed its nose at the huge aircraft carrier on the sea.