Anti-Japanese War: The whole world is a base vehicle

Chapter 174: Deploy troops and generals!

"Where did the German army get so many battleships?" Admiral Canniin frowned and asked this question more than once.

He stood on the bridge, looking at the majestic German battleships in the distance, his eyes full of disbelief and his heart like a raging storm. He couldn't understand how the German army could have so many battleships all of a sudden.

In his original understanding, although the German naval power should not be underestimated, it would not have so many battleships.

If the German army had so many battleships, the British army's first target would probably have been the German Navy. After all, in the game at sea, battleships play a vital role. When so many battleships gather together, the powerful combat effectiveness they demonstrate has indeed seriously threatened the ruling position of the British Empire.

You know, the reason why the British Empire was able to become the hegemon in the world was because of the famous Royal Fleet. The Royal Fleet was the pride of the British Empire and the key to maintaining its maritime hegemony and controlling the world situation.

Now that the German Navy has the ability to threaten the Royal Navy's position with these battleships, it is natural that it must first find a way to deal with the opponent and must not allow it to grow and threaten its dominant position.

Take the previous attack on Oran Harbor for example, why did we do that?
Isn't it because once the French Navy joins the German side, the combined naval power of both sides will naturally pose a certain threat to the British Empire's maritime status, so the British army will decisively take the initiative, even if it causes some unpleasantness with France, it will not care, just to eliminate this potential huge threat.

But in the end, the number of battleships in the hands of the German army was far beyond imagination. This sudden situation made Admiral Canniin somewhat overwhelmed. His original strategic plans and psychological expectations were all disrupted at once.

In fact, not only him, but other British officers around him were also stunned when they saw this scene, and their jaws almost dropped.

With so many battleships, lined up next to each other, the scene was so spectacular that it gave people a great sense of oppression just by looking at it, and it felt like they could directly fight against them.

Although the hit rate of naval guns will not be very high in naval battles, after all, it is affected by various factors, such as the turbulence of the waves, the maneuvering of the warships of both sides, etc., but when so many naval guns fire at the same time, even if the hit rate is only a part, there will always be hits, and the destructive power caused by the accumulation of small amounts is quite astonishing.

Moreover, in fact, the hit rate of these German battleships was not too low.

This is because the German sailors are insufficient. In order to allow these warships to perform their combat effectiveness normally, some of the sailors are system soldiers. Don't underestimate these system soldiers. They have extremely strong operating levels. After special training, they have very powerful skills in operating naval guns and grasping the timing of shooting. This is also an important reason why the German battleships can exert such powerful power. No wonder the British army was so shocked when they saw it.

"Commander, these are old battleships from World War I." At this time, a sharp-eyed officer carefully observed the German battleships and spoke in surprise. There was a hint of surprise in his voice. He never expected to see these old World War I ships here that seemed to be "resurrected" from history.

"Could it be that they salvaged the sunken battleships and modified them?" Another officer nearby guessed along this line of thought. He felt that this seemed to be a more reasonable explanation at the moment. Otherwise, how could the German army suddenly have so many old battleships? After all, those had appeared on the battlefields of World War I. According to common sense, they should have sunk to the bottom of the sea or been scrapped long ago.

"Impossible." Admiral Kan An Ning did not wait for the other party to finish speaking, but directly and categorically denied the other party's opinion. He frowned, his face full of disdain, thinking that this was simply nonsense.

What a joke, most of those sunken warships had been salvaged by the British long ago, and then dismembered to prevent them from being used again by the enemy, or for the purpose of obtaining some usable spare parts. It was impossible for the complete hulls to remain in the hands of the Germans, let alone being salvaged and modified by them. This was totally inconsistent with the actual situation, so he denied this speculation without even thinking about it.

But the problem is that those majestic battleships in front of them are indeed old German warships from World War I. This is an obvious fact that cannot be denied at all. It is also really hard to explain, as if they appeared out of thin air. This stumped Admiral Cannin. He stood there, his brows furrowed tighter and tighter, his face became extremely ugly, and his heart was full of confusion and worry.

Considering the Italian and French fleets behind him, he became more and more uncertain. He originally thought that by relying on the combined fleets of the three countries, he would be able to fight against the German army. But now, when he saw the German battleship lineup, he suddenly didn't have much confidence in defending the port of Alexandria.

After all, although the combined number of warships of these three countries is not small, the number of warships on the German side is far beyond his imagination. Moreover, from the current point of view, their only advantage seems to be the air force. If they can rely on the air force to effectively attack the German fleet, they may still be able to fight.

But if this advantage was weakened, then it would be really over. Facing such a powerful German fleet, they would not even be able to resist and could only watch the Germans break through the defense line and capture the port of Alexandria. When he thought of this, he felt a pang of fear in his heart, but he really couldn't think of any better response strategy, so he could only anxiously wait for the situation to develop further.

"Report the situation here to the Prime Minister immediately and tell him that we have all been deceived by the Germans." Admiral Kananning's face turned blue with anger and he spoke with gritted teeth. His words were full of anger and unwillingness. He never thought that the German army would have such a trick up its sleeve. Now he only hoped that the Prime Minister could come up with a countermeasure to reverse this unfavorable situation.

"Yes." After hearing the order, the subordinates did not dare to delay for even a second and hurried to convey the message.

Not long after, in the office on Downing Street full of history, Churchill, who had just taken office, was sitting busy at his desk. When he took the telegram handed over by his assistant, he looked down and was stunned for a long time.

He really couldn't believe what was described in the telegram. In order to confirm its authenticity, he even rubbed his eyes subconsciously, thinking that maybe he had seen it wrong. But when he looked again, he found that it was true. At that moment, his face became extremely solemn.

"Oh my God, oh my God, this is actually true." Churchill couldn't help but exclaimed. He stood up and paced back and forth in the office, his brows tightly furrowed, his face full of shock.

The appearance of the German Navy in the Mediterranean was surprising enough, but what was unexpected was that there were nearly ten battleships. This heavy news exploded in his heart like a bomb and really scared him.

More importantly, these battleships were all old German battleships from World War I, which surprised him even more.

An idea flashed through his mind. Could it be that Germany salvaged those sunken warships? After all, under normal circumstances, how could these warships that should have disappeared in the long river of history suddenly reappear? It seems that salvaging is the only possibility. But soon, he threw this idea out of his mind. Because he knew very well that most of those warships were dismembered by the British. At that time, in order to prevent the German army from having the opportunity to use them again, the British took a lot of effort to deal with all the warships that could be dealt with.

Of course, there are indeed some warships that have not been salvaged for various reasons, but since Germany's defeat, their every move has been under British supervision. They have no chance to salvage secretly, let alone repair and modify these warships and put them back into use, so salvage is definitely not the reason.

After much thought, he felt that the only explanation was that the German army had secretly built them overseas. Only in this way could it explain why these veteran World War I battleships suddenly appeared in the Mediterranean and caused so much trouble to the British army. But when he thought that the German army actually had such capabilities and had concealed it from Britain for so long, he felt a sense of fear in his heart and was worried at the same time. He thought that he had to quickly gather everyone to discuss countermeasures and could not let the German army stir up trouble on the sea.

"Damn it, where are they building it?" Churchill said angrily, his face full of anger, his hands clenched tightly into fists. His eyes revealed an eager exploration, as if he wanted to see through the space in front of him and directly see the mysterious battleship construction base of the German army.

His curiosity was like a burning flame, growing hotter and hotter. Where did the Germans get the money to build such a huge fleet?

This is not something that can be accomplished simply by spending a little money.

The funds required for these nearly ten battleships, plus other warships, are simply astronomical.

Moreover, for such a large-scale construction project, the flow of funds should be easy to detect, but the German army hid it so well.

You must know that the British Empire is the empire on which the sun never sets, and it has extensive spheres of influence and intelligence networks around the world.

They are like an omniscient giant who knows almost everything about the global situation.

Under such strict surveillance, theoretically speaking, it is basically impossible for other countries to build warships secretly.

However, the facts before us ruthlessly shattered this perception.

But he knew very well that Kan An Ning would never lie to him.

He still had confidence in the loyalty and professionalism of this general, so he now clearly realized that the situation he was facing was as complicated as a tangled mess.

First of all, the strategic position of Alexandria Port is extremely important, like a pearl in the Mediterranean, and it must be defended.

Once this port is lost, the control of the Mediterranean will be greatly changed, and Britain's interests in the Mediterranean will also suffer a heavy blow.
Second, finding out where the German warships came from is the key to resolving the crisis.

Only by knowing the source can we fundamentally curb the expansion of German naval power.

The last and most important point is that after the truth is found out, this so-called warship production base must be destroyed immediately.

This was like cutting off the enemy's roots, so that the German army would no longer have the ability to build these warships that threatened Britain's maritime hegemony.

"Shit, our intelligence department is a piece of shit. Such important news, but we didn't even get any news about it?" Churchill said with gritted teeth, his face flushed with anger.

He was extremely angry at the intelligence department's negligence. In his opinion, the intelligence department should be able to detect some clues about such a large-scale warship construction plan, but now it is like a blind man and has not provided any useful information at all, which has put him in an extremely passive situation. While he was thinking about how to remedy this situation, he was also thinking about how to reorganize the intelligence department.

Of course, now is not the time to pursue responsibility. Although Churchill was furious at the intelligence department's dereliction of duty, he also knew that the most important thing at the moment was to resolve the imminent crisis, which was to defend the port of Alexandria at all costs.

This port is of great significance to the British Empire. It is related to the strategic layout and maritime control of the entire Mediterranean region, and the German army must not be allowed to take it away easily.

Therefore, Churchill immediately gave a swift and decisive order, ordering the H Fleet stationed in Gibraltar to set out immediately to support Alexandria Port at full speed.

The H Fleet has excellent combat effectiveness and is usually responsible for guarding important sea areas and responding to emergencies. Sending them there at this moment is in the hope that they can rely on their powerful firepower and combat capabilities to strengthen the defense of Alexandria Port and block the offensive of the German army and the navies of Italy, France and other countries.

At the same time, just in case, Churchill also decided to draw warships from the Royal Home Fleet, carefully form a task force, and send it to Gibraltar without stopping to stand by.

He was thinking that once the situation in Alexandria was not right and something irresistible occurred, this task force would be able to quickly cooperate with the Mediterranean Fleet stationed in Alexandria to form a powerful maritime combat force, which would give the navies of the three countries a surprise blow, and then destroy the navies of the three countries, regain the maritime advantage in the Mediterranean, and keep the situation firmly in the hands of the British Empire.

(End of this chapter)