Berlin, Germany, German Supreme Command, Führer's Office.
Leon stood by the huge French window, looking at the light snow falling outside, with a serious expression, wondering what he was thinking.
"Führer, the latest situation report from the Dutch side!" The door was pushed open from the outside, and a soldier with the rank of general of the SS on his shoulder hurriedly ran to Leon with a message.
It was Ludwig who came, and Ludwig was probably the only one in Germany who could directly enter the head of state's office without knocking.
Of course, Ludwig usually knocks on the door, but today it is really an emergency and he will ignore etiquette.
"Read it to me." I don't know if Leon has a cold, but his voice is a little hoarse today.
"Dear Your Excellency the Head of State: The statistics of the damage to the Den Helder Naval Base have been completed, of which 80% of the ground infrastructure was damaged, and two of the four underground oil depots were destroyed. 334 people were killed and 272 were injured, of which 212 were from your country. People were killed in battle, including the commander of the base, Vice Admiral Erich Zeger of the German Navy. Due to the heroic fighting of the three heavy cruisers of your country, the base has won precious time for evacuation, so all logistics and port affairs in the base The ships have all evacuated from the base, and carried a large amount of supplies safely and orderly to other safer ports for refuge. Regarding your loss and the deaths of officers and soldiers, on behalf of Queen Wilhelmina and the Dutch government, I would like to extend my condolences to you and your country The sincerest condolences of the people. - Netherlands Navy Ministry."
Leon closed his eyes after listening.
After a long time, he took a long breath and asked in a hoarse voice: "Why can the British approach such an important naval base so easily? Why did the British attack fleet approach Den Helder less than 70 kilometers away before being killed?" Find?"
"According to the Dutch investigation, it was because of the bad weather that day, and the planes equipped by the nearby Dutch Air Force Base, which is responsible for providing air cover for the Den Helder base, are all relatively old and open-cockpit planes, which reduced the dispatch of reconnaissance planes. They did not notify Den Helder that they had lowered the dispatch frequency, which resulted in the Naval Air Force affiliated to Den Helder base maintaining the original attendance rate as usual, which made the British fleet stay within 100 kilometers before being discovered..." Ludwig lowered his head and replied.
"The attendance rate of the plane has decreased, what about the radar?" Leon was a little annoyed, "Could it be that the radar also went on strike because of bad weather?!"
"Uh, Den Helder doesn't have a radar..."
"No radar?!" Leon turned around and looked directly at Ludwig, "How could there be no radar? When the Den Helder Naval Base project was established, I specifically asked for a complete radar station to be built near the base. I even saw the location of the radar station on the engineering drawings during the construction of the later project, why now you tell me that there is no radar?!"
"Führer, the builder has indeed built the radar station according to your requirements, and built it according to the placement of the most advanced radar, but..." Ludwig paused, "But the radar station has been built, but There's no radar in it, it's just an empty shell."
"why?!"
"Because Siemens did not receive enough payment, they refused to provide the military with radar components."
"Didn't I give enough money to the Den Helder project? Why did Siemens say that it didn't receive it?" Leon was a little annoyed. At first he thought it was intentional by Siemens, but it was impossible when he thought about it carefully, because Siemens has always been Those who firmly support him have no reason to do such a thing.
"Notify Heydrich, let him send someone to investigate." Leon waved his hand.
"Okay." Ludwig nodded respectfully.
"Also." Leon thought of something, "Where is Raeder? He should return to Den Helder, right?"
"No, Führer." Ludwig shook his head, "He ordered General Lütjens, who was supporting the army in Belgium but ended up fighting the French Navy, and his battleship detachment to join him and lead the complete The High Seas Fleet went north, saying it was to carry out a mission you gave him, to avenge the three heavy cruisers."
At the end, Ludwig thought for a while and added: "I thought you knew, so I didn't tell you."
"The mission I gave him?" Leon was a little confused. If he remembered correctly, he didn't give Raedel any mission recently.
Suddenly, a plan emerged from his mind, combined with "going north", he probably guessed what Raeder was doing.
"Has he opened his mind?" Leon thought suspiciously.
At the same time, somewhere in the North Sea, the bridge of the aircraft carrier Leon Andres, the flagship of the German High Seas Fleet.
Raeder stood by the port window, staring at the Deutschland aircraft carrier not far away from the window, which was cutting the waves at a high speed of 28 knots, in a daze.
The German High Seas Fleet completed its assembly two hours ago, and the main fleet consisting of 6 heavy fleet aircraft carriers and 4 battleships began to accelerate northward under Raeder's command.
No one knew why Raeder went north in such a hurry, even ignoring the two battleships that had just fought the French and were still wounded.
"So you're saying that the French fleet has a powerful new battleship, right?" After a long time, Raeder asked Lütjens beside him who finished the battle report.
"Yes, we have never seen that battleship before." Lütjens nodded. "It looks strange. It only has two turrets, all front-mounted, and each turret has four main guns. Look at their main guns. The movement that came out was mostly 380mm caliber, but it was very powerful and accurate. Its salvo at 18,000 meters directly hit two rounds of the Admiral Scheer, and one shot penetrated the main gun at the rear of it. The deck and horizontal armor caused dozens of casualties. Another shot hit the thickest part of the gun mantlet on the front of the No. 2 turret, and almost penetrated the No. 2 turret and blasted it to the sky."
As he spoke, Lütjens looked fearfully at the Admiral Scheer not far to the right of the Leon Andres.
A huge bomb crater can be clearly seen on the No. 2 turret.
"The 380mm caliber is so powerful..." Raeder muttered, "With such a high penetration, it is either a high-caliber naval gun or a strong charge... The French are getting more and more interesting... We will give up Err avenged two shots, but now we have to avenge Ron and them first."
"To be honest, General, I don't know where you are going." Lütjens finally asked. He was very disturbed by going north all the time, because the northernmost part of the North Sea is Britain.
"Go here." Raeder walked back to the center of the bridge and pointed to a place on the map.
"Pu... Portsmouth?!" Lütjens exclaimed in surprise.