Chapter 552 The wolf pack is destroyed

Chapter 552 The wolf pack is destroyed

Chapter 552 The wolf pack is destroyed
The Bay of Biscay is windy and rough.

However, the heavy body of the 100,000-ton Liangguang aircraft carrier was also extremely stable in the wind and waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

On the aircraft carrier deck, Grant wore a double-breasted suit and a tie, with a pocket watch in his jacket pocket clipped to his suit collar with a chain, and an unprecedented five-star shoulder badge on his shoulder, looking extremely cool.

Western-style military uniforms were a feature of senior military officers of this era. Prince Alfred of Britain was wearing this when he met Shao Quanzhong in Hawaii, and Grant was no exception.

Grant finally got rid of the identity of "Chief of Staff" when he fought with Shao Quanzhong. Now he is the commander-in-chief of the Xia-US coalition forces, and Emery beside him has been promoted to Chief of Staff.

Emery was also old, already fifty-one, with a neatly trimmed beard. For this expedition, Emery was promoted to general, wearing a double-breasted military uniform with four stars on his shoulders and a windbreaker on the outside.

Emery put his hands in the pockets of his windbreaker, which made rustling sounds in the strong Atlantic breeze, looking quite stylish.

Emery looked at the turbulent Atlantic Ocean, shook his head and sighed, "From the perspective of pure war, we should take the railway, through the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia's Eastern Front, and go straight to Berlin. This is the fastest route to victory."

"We took several months to prepare for this sea route, which is a long detour and goes against military rules. Commander Grant, what do you think?"

Grant patted his old brother on the shoulder and said, "You, after all these years, are still a pure soldier, but fighting a war is inseparable from political needs."

"First of all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire shares the same culture and ethnicity with Germany, and they have a long-standing friendship. Because of Princess Sissi, the Austro-Hungarian Empire surrendered to Daxia. But it would be difficult for Austria-Hungary to declare war on Germany, and it would be good enough for them to remain neutral."

"Lucia is a big country. Because of the friendship between Shao Quanxiao and Potowski, and the fact that the Marshal is the son-in-law of the late Emperor Alexander II, Lucia now maintains a mutually beneficial economic integration with Daxia."

"But Lucia has always refused to station troops in Daxia. She has her own dignity. If we want to use Lucia as a passage to attack Germany, we will definitely have to pay a price in diplomacy. This is not cost-effective."

"Even if we open up these two routes through diplomacy, what good will it do to send troops too quickly?"

"Germany's five million regular troops are not pushovers. They can even mobilize ten million to defend their country. If Daxia wants to defeat Germany alone, it will certainly be severely damaged even if it can do so."

"The Marshal is in charge. We have to drag the Federation down and share the losses. We have to wait for the Federation soldiers to arrive and send troops, right? It's not that we can't send troops quickly, but we have to coordinate with the Federation's recruitment speed, which has delayed it for eight months."

"We both come from the Federation, and the Marshal has entrusted us with the important task of commanding the Daxia army. We should treat the pressure from the coalition forces equally."

"There are some things that cannot be said openly. When the decision was made to send troops, the Battle of London was in full swing. The combined strength of the four Lan coalition forces of the 'non-Daxiafenni faction' showed extraordinary combat effectiveness, and they fought back and forth with the German army in London."

"If we quickly defeat the German army, Wilhelmina, with her five million troops, could potentially usurp the throne and rule Britain, establishing a third-party power that includes Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, and even occupied Germany."

"If they join forces with Lucia, their strength will be enough to divide the world into three parts with the Federation and Daxia. This is a result that neither the Federation nor Daxia wants to see."

"A unified and powerful Europe is not a good Europe. Moreover, the direct reason why Daxia sent troops was to restore the Windsor royal family and obtain the territory promised by Victoria."

"So - sending troops too early will not achieve the goal. We must wait until most of the five million people in Southeast Asia have been consumed by the German army before sending troops..."

Emery scratched the back of his head. "Is it that complicated? Wilhelmina is Shao Quanxiao's daughter-in-law. Relatives are actually scheming against each other?"

Grant laughed. "Who among the European royal families is not related to each other? There is a saying in Daxia that brothers should settle accounts clearly. This is why, although you are now recognized as the most powerful military strategist after the Prussian soldier saint, you can only be my chief of staff."

Emery shook his head. "As a pure soldier, I should not think too much and just focus on winning the war."

Grant disagreed, "At your level, you have to think about it even if you don't want to. This time, Daxia's participation in the European war is not only for the purpose of acquiring territory, but also for the purpose of demonstrating its strength to the world."

"The Daxia navy is unrivaled in the world now, and it is easy to destroy the German navy. The Federation navy can only outnumber the German navy. If we were to engage in a decisive battle with the Germans on the surface, I'm afraid we would suffer heavy losses even if we win."

"So, Daxia's deployment of troops via water can also save the lives of hundreds of thousands of sailors for the Federation."

"There was another unexpected benefit. As soon as our fleet entered the Mediterranean, Italy saw that the situation was unfavorable and immediately defected again and joined our side..."

"Tsk, Italy—"

Seeing Emery's disdainful look, Grant sighed, "Don't look down on Italy. They are very smart."

"Look at the two European wars. Britain, France and Germany were badly hurt. Austria-Hungary was able to save its vitality only by joining the Marshal. Italy has never been seriously injured and has always stood up in time and stood on the side of the strong."

"Although their reputation is in tatters, they have taken advantage of it. In the world of the strong, Italy, as a medium-sized power, has jumped back and forth repeatedly, and each jump has been to the right place. This is their ability, and there is nothing they can do due to the limitations of their national strength."

Grant patted Emery's shoulder again, "There are no real fools in this world, except Waldersee - he is actually just crazy."

"Boom! Boom!"

There was a dull sound of depth charges coming from the front, and fragments of submarines kept floating up to the surface. The anti-submarine operations of the Daxia fleet had begun.

The vanguard of the Daxia fleet were the two primary aircraft carriers, the Hermes and the Fengxiang, and there were more than 20 escort ships gathered around each aircraft carrier.

Basically, the aircraft carrier was in the center, escorted by several 10,000-ton heavy cruisers, and on the periphery were a dozen destroyers and frigates. At the front, forty "Havoc" anti-submarine helicopters led the way and continued to patrol the sea.

The range of this helicopter launched by Tesla is up to 470 kilometers. The anti-submarine model is equipped with N025 radar with a detection distance of up to 20 kilometers, which can detect enemy submarines even at night.

After entering the Bay of Biscay, German submarines soon appeared. But it was useless. Each aircraft carrier group was equipped with 20 anti-submarine helicopters. The German submarines had nowhere to hide and were discovered kilometers away.

Once the assassin revealed his identity, the slow submarine would become a target for the two huge depth charges on the helicopter mounts.

Daxia's radar technology is just in its infancy. The electromagnetic waves emitted by the radar will quickly attenuate when entering the water and cannot be detected below fifty meters.

However, today's submarines are not that powerful.

The earliest submarine designed by the Irish could only dive to a depth of 12 meters and could be observed with the naked eye from an airship on the sea surface.

After eight or nine years of improvements, today's submarines can only dive to a maximum of 50 meters. Due to the limitations of material capabilities, if they dive deeper, the submarine structure will not be able to withstand the pressure of seawater.

In fact, the normal cruising depth of German submarines was 30 meters, which was enough to avoid the sight of the airship's visual anti-submarine attack. The lower limit of 50 meters could not last for more than a few minutes. When they encountered the secret of Daxia's radar, they were finished.

Therefore, the radar's detection depth of fifty meters is sufficient for now.

Daxia has made huge investments in electromagnetics, and the Xiaoxiangya Academy of Sciences has actually designed a radar that can detect deeper in the water, but it cannot be installed on a ship.

Technically speaking, the longer the wavelength of electromagnetic waves, the greater their ability to penetrate the water surface.

Daxia has built a long-wave radar along its coast, which can monitor the sea area 1000 meters deep within a range of 100 kilometers. However, the long-wave radar requires an area of ​​ square kilometers to build, and with current technology, it is still difficult to miniaturize it...

Sonar detection technology is also being developed, but it can only passively listen to sounds, and the development time is tight, so it has not yet been equipped to the navy.

The submarine's lurking capability and the detection capabilities of radar and sonar have always been a process of competition, and there is no technology that can solve all problems once and for all.

Currently, there is no submarine that can exceed a depth of fifty meters and escape the monitoring of Daxia’s ordinary radar. This is enough.

Forty professional anti-submarine helicopters are the death of submarines. The German submarines lurking in the Bay of Biscay are bright spots on the helicopter radar screens.

The helicopters flew over the bright spot and dropped depth charges from two racks. A submarine was immediately put over and had no way to escape.

After bombing two submarines at a time, the helicopters flew back to the heavy cruiser, landed on the deck, immediately re-hung the bombs, refueled, and then returned to the front, one after another.

These heavy cruisers have another name: helicopter carriers.

Helicopter anti-submarine warfare is only the first echelon, and the second echelon is more than a dozen light destroyers and frigates. The ship-borne radar is not as high as the helicopter and can detect far, but it can also clearly detect targets within 50 meters underwater within a range of 5 kilometers.

More than a dozen light warships were lined up in an array and moved side by side, first detecting whether there were any fish that had escaped the helicopter's detection within a range of five kilometers.

If there is one, rush over and drop depth charges. If not, immediately accelerate to 30 knots, sprint 5 kilometers, and then slow down to detect.

One charge cycle is 5 kilometers, which is the forward mode of light ships equipped with radar to deal with submarines.

Anti-submarine helicopters destroyed most of the submarines, and the light warships charged intermittently. After filtering again, the heavy cruisers and aircraft carriers behind were absolutely safe. The aircraft carrier formation slowly pressed towards London at a constant speed of 10 knots, without stopping at all.

The German submarines were also equipped with radio communication systems. Navy Commander Tirpitz was not a madman. After receiving reports from the front that more than 100 submarines had been lost and nothing had been gained, he immediately terminated the futile wolf pack tactics.

The remaining submarines surfaced and used afterburners to evade the Daxia fleet. Those that were too close to escape were allowed to surface and surrender.

The German submarines' plan to intercept the Daxia Navy failed completely.

Liao Rong, the commander-in-chief of the Daxia Navy, was not on the aircraft carrier. His ship was the latest 10,000-ton missile destroyer Bozhou, and his son Liao Yuzhu was the captain.

The 80-ton destroyer is large in size and can be equipped with a more powerful radar with a detection range of up to kilometers.

In fact, the Liangguang aircraft carrier is larger and has a radar that can detect 500 kilometers. But that is useless against the Bozhou, as the weapons equipped on the Bozhou cannot reach that far.

"Report to the Marshal, a German aircraft carrier formation has been spotted 80 kilometers ahead."

The Bozhou was only equipped with short-range rapid-fire guns, making it impossible for it to engage in direct combat with the enemy.

Liao Rong chuckled, with pity on his face, "Prepare to attack."

On the Bozhou, the hatch of the vertical launch bay was opened, and the first-generation ship-to-ship cruise missile code-named "Broom" revealed its hideous pointed head.

(End of this chapter)