Text Volume 2209 From the moment the frightened and crazy British stopped resisting, France had lost the possibility of returning to a superpower.
In the last world war, the Allied forces were still dominated by Britain and France. Now they have been replaced by southern Africa, the United States, and a half-disabled Russia. Compared with the last world war, the weakness of Britain is more obvious. France has already
Completely lying on the ground, the so-called "maintaining neutrality" is just a way to save face. In fact, France has become a German colony.
Roque was still very restrained towards France. After the southern African army invaded Spain, they did not continue to move further north. This was not out of consideration for the feelings of the French, but to continue to consume Germany.
In the winter that just passed, both the German and Russian armies suffered heavy losses. At least 1 million people on the Russian side were killed, another 2.4 million people were captured, and nearly 3 million people were injured. Before the war broke out, the Russian army had a total of 5.37 million people. Calculated in this way
Everyone has died once.
Mustache really underestimated Russia's war potential. While Russia suffered huge losses, it mobilized 3.6 million people to join the army within six months. This efficiency is very terrifying. The United Kingdom has been mobilizing since before the outbreak of the war, and it has not been able to do so until now.
Only 1 million people were mobilized to join the army.
In addition to the huge losses in personnel, the 15,000 tanks Russia owned before the war, plus the 8,000 tanks added last year, now only have about 3,900 tanks left that can still fight.
In terms of air force, Russia had 20,000 aircraft before the war, and lost about 17,000 last year. Not all of these aircraft were battle losses, and non-combat losses reached about 60%.
Also suffering heavy losses are artillery. Since the war broke out, Russia has lost about 40,000 artillery pieces, with an average loss of about 250 artillery pieces every day. Referring to the equipment of the Russian army, about one army is lost every day.
In terms of small arms, Russia loses an average of 11,000 pieces per day, enough to equip a division.
It is true that Russia has quite strong industrial capabilities, but in the face of huge losses, no matter how powerful the industrial capabilities are, it cannot be maintained. Therefore, when the time came to 1942, Russia's dependence on Allied transportation did not decrease at all, but became more and more serious.
.
Southern Africa is only responsible for production, not transportation. This work is taken care of by the British army.
The division of labor within the Allied Forces was clear. The Royal Navy had so many large warships that they could be used to deal with the German Navy. The Royal Navy had the ability to blockade the German coast, and naturally also had the ability to send supplies produced in southern Africa to Russia.
This job is not easy either...
There are currently three ways for the Allies to send supplies to Russia. One is through railway transportation in the Near East, the other is through East Asia to Siberia. The last route is to set sail from Iceland or Scotland, go north through the Norwegian Sea, enter the Arctic Ocean, and then
The Norwegian Sea-Arctic Ocean route turns south to Murmansk or Arkhangel in Russia.
This route is close to the German naval and air force bases in Norway and Finland. Murmansk is only 50 kilometers away from the nearest German air force base, so the difficulty can be imagined.
However, in terms of efficiency, this route is the highest. In just two months last year, 750 tanks, 800 fighter jets, 1,400 trucks and 100,000 tons of arms arrived in Russia through the Arctic route.
At the end of the year, due to the drop in temperature, the North Pole voyage was temporarily interrupted.
In early March, the Russians, who had just won the battle to defend Moscow, could not wait to launch a counterattack against the Germans.
On March 1, the Russian Southwest Front Army and the Southern Front Army, led by Lieutenant Generals Timoshenko and Malinovsky, launched an attack on Kharkov.
The offensive ended in a crushing defeat for Russia.
The German army, which suffered a head-on attack in Moscow, was not injured, and the main force, which had accumulated rich experience in last year's battle, did not lose its combat effectiveness.
The Russian side is mainly composed of new recruits. They have not yet had the experience of leaving the city and conducting field battles with the German army. The cooperation between the Russian troops is not skilled enough. There is not enough contact between each other, the cooperation is not smooth, and the logistics support is not sufficient. In the end, Russia
320,000 people were lost, of which 75,000 were killed and 240,000 were captured.
Russia also lost 1,249 tanks and 2,026 artillery pieces. The German army only lost 20,000 people.
The failure of the Battle of Kharkov caused the Russian army to fall into passivity again. The tanks that Russia lost now were not the small tanks with outdated models and backward technology before the war, but advanced tanks supported by the Allies or produced by the Russians themselves.
T34.
After the failure of the Mustache attack on Moscow last winter, he regrouped throughout the winter and is preparing to launch the next large-scale attack on Russia.
Beard had a premonition that the situation was not good, and sent telegrams to Roark, Winston, and Roosevelt every day, urging the Allied forces to land on the Mediterranean coast to open a second battlefield, and hoping to receive more material assistance.
It was impossible to land. The southern African troops who invaded Spain were stationary on the Western-French border. It was impossible to open a second battlefield in a short time, unless both the Russians and the Germans suffered losses.
Since a second battlefield cannot be opened, at least more assistance must be given to Russia so that the Russians have the determination and courage to persist in the war.
On March 25, the fleet code-named "PQ-17" set off from Iceland to Murmansk.
The British named the convoy carrying cargo from Iceland to Russia the PQ fleet, and the empty fleet returning from Russia as the QP fleet.
This is a large fleet, consisting of a convoy, an emergency support fleet and a strike fleet.
As more and more southern African equipment appears on the Russian battlefield, Mustache has realized the importance of the Arctic route to Russia, so he sent four submarine groups to the Norwegian Sea and successively added the battleship "Tirpitz"
, the battlecruiser "Scharnhorst", the heavy cruisers "Admiral Scheer", "Admiral Hipper", and "Prinz Eugen" were stationed in northern Norway, and the Luftwaffe's first
More than 200 bombers from the Fifth Flying Group strengthened the maritime assault force.
The Germans gathered heavy troops in the Norwegian Sea in order to cut off the Arctic route.
This time, Winston launched a heavy attack to deliver supplies to the Russians. At the same time, he also hoped to use PQ-17 as bait to lure the "Tirpitz" out to encircle and annihilate it.
The convoy of PQ17 consists of 34 merchant ships and escort fleets. The escort fleet includes 6 destroyers, 2 anti-aircraft ships, 2 submarines, 4 frigates, 4 submarine hunters, 3 minesweepers, and a southern African ship.
icebreaker, 3 rescue ships and 1 supply tanker.
The emergency support fleet consists of 2 British cruisers, 2 American cruisers and 3 destroyers. British Rear Admiral Hamilton serves as the fleet commander. The main task of this fleet is to entangle the German surface fleet with the "Tirpitz" as the main force.
Find opportunities for combat fleet operations.
The strike fleet is the core force of the entire plan. It has the latest British battleship "Duke of York", the American battleship "Washington", and the newly built British aircraft carrier "Victory". The fleet can destroy "no matter whether it is short or medium range"
Tirpitz's capabilities.
In addition, on the long and winding Norwegian coastline, the Royal Navy has also deployed 9 British submarines and 2 Soviet submarines to serve as sentries. As long as the "Tirpitz" goes to sea, the strike fleet will move closer to the convoy.
On the 27th, the fleet entered the Norwegian Sea. The channel was full of ice floes. Although there were icebreakers to clear the way, a cargo ship still ran aground.
The cargo ship that ran aground was forced to return to Iceland, and the fleet continued its journey.
At this time, there was a combination of rain and snow, and the waves rushed to the deck and froze before flowing down. The ice layer became thicker and thicker, the center of gravity became higher and higher, and the ship was in danger of capsizing.
The sailors worked hard to remove the ice and keep the fleet moving forward.
When the fleet passed Jan Mayen Island on the 10th longitude line, a German U-boat spotted the fleet, and more German ships swarmed in like a pack of wolves.
Although the strength of the escort fleet cannot compete with the "Tirpitz", it is still very effective in dealing with submarines.
A German submarine surfaces and prepares to launch a torpedo.
A destroyer and a submarine hunter immediately surrounded it and dropped the depth charges for free. The German submarine was sunk without even having a chance to launch a torpedo.
The German army dispatched HE-115 torpedo bombers to try to attack the fleet.
Under the fierce anti-aircraft fire from the escort fleet, the HE-115 gained nothing.
On the 5th, the British submarine responsible for monitoring the movements of the "Tirpitz" sent a message that the "Tirpitz" had left the Altenfjord and its whereabouts were unknown.
A Russian submarine also discovered the "Tirpitz" and fired a torpedo at the "Tirpitz". Unfortunately, the torpedo did not hit the target, or it hit but did not explode.
No. 1 was the main force of the German fleet, heading northeast at a speed of 27 knots.
Based on this speed, the fleet will soon enter the attack range of the "Tirpitz" in ten hours.
The "Tirpitz" is the second ship of the German "Bismarck" class battleship. The first ship "Bismarck" was sunk by the Allies last year.
Like the "Bismarck", the "Tirpitz" has four twin-mounted 380mm main guns with extremely powerful firepower. The British have not forgotten the tragedy of the "Hood" being sunk. Once the fleet enters "Tirpitz"
Within the attack range of the "Pitz", all ships will be sunk by the "Tirpitz" one by one.
After learning the news of the dispatch of the "Tirpitz", Hamilton, commander of the emergency support fleet, immediately sent a telegram to Admiral Tovey, commander of the strike fleet, hoping that the strike fleet would arrive as soon as possible.
The strike fleet was in trouble at this time.
In order to ensure the surprise of the strike, the strike fleet kept a distance from the PQ-17 for about four to five hours, and has maintained radio silence since its departure.
When receiving Hamilton's telegram, the strike fleet was struggling to advance in the channel full of drift ice. John Tovey found through calculations that the strike fleet could not reach the battlefield before PQ-17 entered the attack range of the "Tirpitz"
, so broke the radio silence, sent a telegram to Hamilton, and let Hamilton handle it himself.
Hamilton was stunned.
The emergency support fleet was configured to hold back the German fleet and find opportunities to attack the fleet.
The cruisers of the emergency support fleet have main guns with a caliber of only 203 mm.
The main gun of the "Tirpitz" has a caliber of 380mm and has a longer range. If the emergency support fleet challenges the "Tirpitz", then I am afraid that the cruiser will be hit by the "Tirpitz" before it enters the range of the main gun.
Torn apart with fierce firepower.
Hamilton knew he was outmatched, but he did not dare to retreat without permission. If the emergency support fleet continued to advance, it might become a trophy of the "Tirpitz" like PQ-17.
If the retreat was more serious, a military court might have to be filed. British judges would not think from Hamilton's point of view.
So Hamilton sent a telegram to First Sea Lord Dudley Pound, asking Dudley Pound to decide the fate of the emergency support fleet and the PQ-17 fleet.
This is definitely a hot potato. Ordering the emergency support fleet to move forward is tantamount to asking the emergency support fleet to die.
If the emergency support fleet is ordered to retreat, some ships can be retained.
This doesn't seem to be a difficult multiple choice question.
But only the person who gave the order knows how tormented he is.
After thinking for three hours, Dudley Pound ordered the emergency support fleet to retreat and ordered the PQ-17 fleet to disperse to Murmansk.
After receiving Dudley Pound's order, Hamilton sent a telegram to the PQ-17 fleet and then retreated.
Now it was the turn of the sailors of PQ-17 to be dumbfounded.
Wasn't it just a bait as promised, why did he suddenly become an outcast?
No one could answer the sailors' questions.
The planned strike fleet and emergency support fleet all ran away. The sailors of PQ-17 also wanted to run away, but they couldn't. No matter how fast the merchant ships ran, they couldn't run faster than the warships.
Since there was no way to escape, the sailors in the desperate situation showed the courage to face death and decided to continue to move towards Murmansk. They knew that there were tigers in the mountains and went to the tiger mountains.
What Dudley Pound didn't know was that when the strike fleet broke radio silence and sent a telegram to the emergency support fleet, the "Tirpitz" intercepted the telegram. Although the Germans could not decipher the content of the telegram, they already knew that the strike fleet was
The presence.
The British remember the "Bismarck" sinking the "Hood", and the subsequent encirclement and annihilation of the "Bismarck" made the Germans heartbroken.
After comprehensive consideration, the "Tirpitz" returned to port in order to preserve its strength. At this time, the "Tirpitz" was only four hours away from PQ-17.
Therefore, the mission of encircling and annihilating PQ-17 was entirely carried out by German submarines and aircraft.
At this time, if the emergency support fleet moves forward at full speed to join the PQ-17, the possibility of the PQ-17's escape will be greatly increased.
Unfortunately, without what-if, the PQ-17, which lost its strike fleet and emergency support fleet, could only fight alone.
Not counting fighting, the escort fleet of the PQ-17 fleet quickly returned after receiving the order to disband, leaving the slow-moving, defenseless merchant ships to the Germans.
The captains of German submarines were well-trained, and they went on a killing spree against merchant ships. 24 merchant ships were sunk, along with 130,000 tons of valuable military supplies, including 430 tanks, 250 fighter jets, and 3,350 vehicles.
Trucks, as well as large quantities of grain, gasoline, tires, medicine, ammunition, radio stations, etc.
It was not until a month later that 13 ships arrived in Murmansk, including 2 British ships, 6 American ships, 2 Russian ships, 1 Panamanian ship, and the other 2 were the only remaining ambulance ships.
When the news came out, the whole world was in uproar.
