Chapter 400132Chapter NaN

September 14, 1940

English Channel

The Reichsmarine fleet, which had sortied early in the morning after being seen off by the Emperor and the Vice-Chancellor, was the largest in the German Navy's history, consisting of 3 battleships, 3 heavy cruisers, 5 light cruisers, and 25 destroyers.

Led by the flagship Bismarck, the Reichsmarine fleet avoided the territorial waters of the Netherlands, passed through the northern seas, and was just now entering the English Channel.

Though the maximum force the Reichsmarine could muster did not surpass Britain's single Force H, Admiral Lütjens's heart pounded rapidly, having finally gotten the fleet battle he had so eagerly awaited.

"Now, let's hurry.

Move smartly, so as not to bring shame upon the name of the Imperial Navy!"

The Bismarck's captain, Ernst Lindemann, glanced at Lütjens with a look of slight disapproval, but the admiral's orders were relayed to each ship nonetheless.

Regardless of the relationship between the admiral and his men, the fleet continued its smooth voyage, launching reconnaissance planes in shifts.

In the original history, the Kriegsmarine had to beg and plead for every single reconnaissance plane due to Göring's stubbornness, but that was not an issue for the Reichsmarine.

Richthofen was the sort of man who preferred to go on one more bombing run than to waste time on such pointless squabbles, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, General Sperrle, had readily cooperated when the Vice-Chancellor requested the establishment of a naval air arm.

It wasn't long before the Reichsmarine received a report from a reconnaissance plane and was able to rendezvous with the British fleet.

A fleet composed of the battlecruiser Hood, the obsolete Revenge-class battleship Ramillies, and the aircraft carriers Ark Royal and Furious.

They were accompanied by an escort of 8 light cruisers and 20 destroyers.

"Hmm, so that's the Hood. Truly massive."

The battlecruiser approaching at the head of the fleet, flying the St.

George's Cross that symbolized its flagship status—Britain's pride, the 'Mighty Hood'—boasted a hull that was no smaller than the Bismarck's, leaving the Reichsmarine in awe.

"To think that it's an ally and not an enemy… you truly never know what the future holds."

At Captain Lindemann's words, Admiral Lütjens nodded his head naturally.

You really never know.

He was left with the regret that if he had known this would happen, he would have designed the ships properly, but it couldn't be helped.

Germany's battleships were fundamentally designed not for fleet-on-fleet decisive battles, but for commerce raiding.

The fact that they were lacking in either firepower or defensive power was partly due to a shortage of technology, but they were never intended for an all-out war in the first place.

Since the German Navy couldn't possibly engage the Royal Navy in an all-out war, it was a somewhat rational judgment under the Nazi regime.

Who could have imagined that a day would come when the German and British navies would fight together as allies?

"That aside, it seems the Royal Navy has taken a huge blow. To think that's all they can commit at such a crucial moment."

"The rest are either elsewhere or busy with repairs."

Admiral Lütjens replied cynically to Captain Lindemann's comment, then paused for a moment before speaking.

"Because we were defeated by those damn bastards, we had to scuttle all of our proud battleships at Scapa Flow, and now they are asking us for help…"

The admiral smirked as he spoke. To see the Royal Navy in such a state… they were allies, but it felt strangely good.

"In a way, it feels like I'm paying them back for the disgrace of that time."

Wondering what expressions the leaders of that Royal Navy were making and what thoughts they were having, Lütjens ordered the entire fleet to match pace with the Royal Navy.

-

At the same time, the French Northern Fleet, which had been waiting for the Anglo-German fleet to sortie, scrambled into action as soon as it received the report from its reconnaissance plane.

The Northern Fleet, led by Admiral Jean de Laborde, consisted of a total of eight battleships—Courbet, Océan, Lorraine, Bretagne, Provence, Dunkerque, Strasbourg, and Richelieu—along with 4 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, and 20 destroyers.

"Phew, this is tense."

"The fate of both France and Britain hangs on this naval battle."

As Admiral Laborde spoke, wiping sweat from his brow with a handkerchief, Vice Admiral Jean-Marie Charles Abrial beside him also spoke with a tense look.

With its land and sea routes blocked, London could not sustain its enormous population and the concentrated British main force.

However, France was also continuously losing aircraft since the German Air Force joined the fight, and its stockpiled fuel reserves were steadily dwindling.

La Rocque's plan had been to start the war with at least a year's worth of fuel stockpiled, but that had all come to nothing when they were hit with trade sanctions from America due to Germany's machinations.

With the war against Britain dragging on longer than planned, the fuel shortage was becoming more severe.

This was also why, despite a shortage of transport ships, they had resorted to importing fuel from Venezuela as a last-ditch measure.

"And for a battle that will decide our fate, the escort fleet is too small to protect eight battleships and four heavy cruisers."

Admiral Laborde muttered grimly.

In the naval battle that had annihilated the British Channel Fleet, the French Navy's casualties had been far from light.

They had somehow managed to repair the lightly damaged ships, but then Italy, which was supposed to handle the Mediterranean, suffered a major defeat, forcing them to split their already insufficient fleet and send ships to the Mediterranean.

As if that wasn't enough, not a single one of the transport ships importing fuel from Venezuela had made it to the mainland alive.

The German submarine fleet hunted the transports with what they called 'Wolf Pack' tactics, a truly brutal group hunting method, and unable to bear it, France had to split its remaining destroyers yet again and deploy them to the western sea under the command of Admiral Godfroy.

As a result, the escort fleet that was supposed to protect the pride of the French Navy, its battleships, consisted of a mere 2 light cruisers and 20 destroyers.

"Well, we can't do anything without fuel. We can only hope that Admiral Godfroy protects the transports well this time."

"He must.

Our air force will have to endure immense sacrifices for this naval battle. We absolutely must win."

With few escorts to protect its battleships from enemy aircraft, the French Navy had no intention of engaging in a fleet battle while having completely lost air superiority.

"Since we can't pass through the airspace of neutral Netherlands and Belgium, an air raid from the German mainland is geographically impossible. It would also be a stretch from central Britain, which is blocked by General de Gaulle, due to the distance and lack of air superiority."

The French Air Force, which had been on the defensive ever since the German Air Force appeared, was now sortieing on a massive scale to engage the enemy for this naval battle.

Therefore, the enemy air forces the French fleet had to be wary of were limited to the carrier-based aircraft launched from aircraft carriers and the enemy air force in blockaded London and the eastern region of England.

"There will be planes taking off from London and the eastern region of England, but there's a limit to what the air bases can accommodate if they have to handle both fighters to deal with our air force and naval attack missions."

Hearing Abrial's words, Admiral Laborde nodded.

"If we're careful of their aircraft, they have at most 4 battleships and 1 battlecruiser. We have 8 battleships, so as long as we watch out for the Hood and the Bismarck, it's a battle we can definitely win."

-

The engagement began when a reconnaissance plane confirmed the approaching French fleet, and the two British aircraft carriers launched their planes in unison.

While a long-range strike using aircraft carriers was underway, what could the Reichsmarine do?

Nothing.

Admiral Lütjens merely watched the scene through his binoculars.

"Tsk, if only our Graf Zeppelin were complete, we could be doing that too."

"At this rate, we should be able to use it within the next year."

Lütjens licked his lips.

It would be easier for them if the Royal Navy's air arm seasoned the enemy ships well.

To be brutally honest, the Reichsmarine was well aware that their own battleships were not something to be trusted.

The only one that was halfway decent was the Bismarck, and when the British engineers saw its design, they were flabbergasted that such a thing was built with this displacement.

When the British, who had been horrified and protested upon learning the displacement of the Bismarck and the Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruisers, found out the true state of things, they had to suppress their scornful laughter and 'generously' acknowledged it, which thoroughly wounded the Reichsmarine's pride.

Still, the Bismarck was the pride of the German Navy, so they poured the budget into it, sacrificing its speed to 28 knots in exchange for reinforcing the deck and turret armor and replacing the radar.

However, the problem with the shells' power could not be resolved due to a lack of time, and the same was true for the refit to replace the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau's pathetic 11-inch guns with 15-inch ones.

Even the French Courbet-class dreadnought battleships from 1913 used 12-inch guns, but for their own battleships, built in the '30s, to use smaller guns—

"Damn it, our navy was full of idiots too."

He could now clearly see just how reckless Plan Z, which aimed to take on the Royal Navy by mass-producing such things, had been.

A short time passed, and Admiral Lütjens saw the formation of returning carrier aircraft.

Watching through his binoculars as they returned one by one, unlike when they had flown off in formation, he counted their numbers and spoke.

"Looks like they're down by a quarter."

"…I see."

"The navy raises hell if even one destroyer is lost, but for the air force, their lives are like flies."

As Lütjens muttered, a report flew in.

"Signal from the British flagship!"

Lütjens lowered his binoculars.

"Alright, you've rested enough, so get up, you idiots! Full speed ahead! Let's sear the name of the Reichsmarine into those vile French bastards' nightmares!"

-

Although they had defended against the first air raid without issue, apart from one destroyer being hit, the French Navy was falling into chaos.

"The lookout couldn't have seen it wrong, could he?"

To Admiral Laborde's incredulous question, the captain also had a face of half-belief, half-doubt.

"Eight enemy battleship-class silhouettes?"

Admiral Laborde asked again, his face completely pale, but his aide, Vice Admiral Abrial, was also too flustered to say anything.

The enemy had two aircraft carriers. There would surely be an air raid from eastern England as well.

But eight enemy battleships?

"T-This must be some kind of mistake!"

"S-Starboard lookout reports! Enemy ship firing! Brace for impact!"

"The range?"

"23,000!"

"Crazy, it really is a battleship!"

Admiral Laborde was on the verge of panic. Eight battleships? What in the world did that mean?

Firing from 23 km was the range of a standard battleship.

According to French intelligence, the Bismarck, Scharnhorst, and Gneisenau had sortied from Germany, and the Hood and Ramillies from Britain.

But eight battleships?

Could it be the Nelson or the Rodney, which were supposed to be under repair? Or was the King George V, which was said to be under construction, completed? Or could it be that Germany had dragged out all its obsolete battleships?

"What battleship is that! What class is it!"

"There's fog, so we can't tell for sure at this distance!"

"Damn it, what was our intelligence department doing!"

"Starboard lookout reports! Enemy battleships firing in succession!"

As the French Navy dithered, the enemy battleships began to fire one after another, and the panic in the French Navy grew ever deeper.

"Admiral!"

Finally, unable to watch any longer, Vice Admiral Abrial shouted urgently, and Admiral Laborde clearly saw the shells fired by the unidentified ship, 'presumed to be a battleship,' fly past their own ships from 23 km away.

It wasn't just a warning shot; it was effective range.

Convinced it was definitely a battleship and not a misidentification, Admiral Laborde broke into a cold sweat and shouted.

"Deploy smokescreen! All ships retreat, we'll pull back and confirm! If we take heavy damage here, we'll be allowing the German army to land in London!"

Although there were no direct hits from the enemy battleships' gunfire, the French fleet had to endure another air raid from the aircraft carriers and a few enemy aircraft flying in from the west as they retreated.

In the first day's battle, where their proud battleships hadn't fired a single shot, the French Navy lost one destroyer sunk and another damaged in the air raid.

Meanwhile, the crew of the damaged destroyer gave a nonsensical report that 'the enemy aircraft attacked with a metal-tearing scream, making it impossible to think straight,' which only made the admiral's head hurt more.

Admiral Laborde couldn't allow a German landing, so he couldn't even return to port. He anchored the fleet at sea and sent a protest telegram to his home country.

But unfortunately, the reply he received from the home country after sunset was enough to make the poor admiral clutch the back of his neck.

[The enemy 'battleships' you reported are presumed to be German Admiral Hipper-class 'heavy cruisers'.

While the admiralty understands your burden in this battle upon which the nation's fate rests, we hope there will be no further disappointments. - Commander-in-Chief of the Navy François Darlan]

The first day's engagement of the naval battle that would decide the fate of France and Britain was recorded in history as a disgrace in which the French Navy mistook Germany's heavy cruisers, which were larger than most battleships, for battleships and fled in defeat.

-

September 15, 1940

Southeast of the British Isles, Eastern England

The time when the dawn was faintly breaking.

Wolfram von Richthofen smiled brightly as he watched the scene of 400 Stukas lined up on a makeshift airfield hastily built by the Luftwaffe, preparing for sortie.

"Ah, what a magnificent sight. I like it. You all worked hard to get ready in time."

"It reminds me of Spain."

Werner Mölders also smiled with a look of satisfaction.

France had predicted there would be no large-scale air raids due to the limited capacity of the airfields in eastern England, and while that was correct according to common sense, they were unfortunately mistaken.

Ever since the Spanish Civil War, Wolfram von Richthofen had favored the tactic of shortening operational distances by constructing makeshift airfields near the front lines, and the Luftwaffe's ability to construct makeshift airfields had been perfected while carrying out large-scale bombings against Italy in Tyrol.

When the Luftwaffe, which had come to provide support, suddenly started construction on bare ground, the RAF had looked on as if to say, 'What are those idiots doing,' but when they began to plaster the land with makeshift airfields in just 10 days, that look turned to one of horror.

"Well, it was tight, but it was possible because we had plenty of transport aircraft."

No one could have known that Göring, who had praised his ridiculous aerial supply concept and mass-produced transport aircraft, would be helpful in this way, but it made it possible to transport the materials for constructing such a large-scale makeshift airfield in a short period.

In the initial engagement, many of the makeshift airfields were not yet complete, and since the French Navy retreated so quickly, only the advance party sent out as a range test had conducted bombings, but now, all preparations were complete.

Wolfram von Richthofen gave a triumphant smile.

"Alright, then. Let's use the French Navy as a sacrifice to humble those British bastards.