Chapter 1118: The High Seas Fleet Sorties

The Japanese Combined Fleet had suffered heavy losses. Imperial HQ made a last-minute change of command, and Isoroku Yamamoto took office once again, preparing to lead the Japanese Navy, which had lost air superiority, in a dying struggle… No matter how you looked at it, it was a rather tragic scene. Just as the German Navy was heroically marching toward the ocean, the Japanese Navy was driven back to its old home in the middle of the great ocean.

After being reinforced by the 232nd Division, General Tomoyuki Yamashita deployed a complete operational plan in Malaya. He had learned from the lessons of previous island-hopping battles, where Japanese troops were crushed on the beaches by US sea and air power, and deployed his main force to the island’s core. His plan was to counter-attack the American forces in the jungle and mountains.

Unfortunately, he and the Japanese high command had underestimated the US Navy’s losses in the recent naval battles. As a result, while Yamashita was waiting for the US Marines, the US Navy had, in fact, returned to Pearl Harbor, and the Marines were resting on nearby islands and in Australia. Precious time ticked by. The Japanese were waiting for the Combined Fleet to regroup; the Americans were waiting for their new aircraft carriers to enter service.

Of course, some people in the world didn’t have to wait, or rather, their waiting time was over. Just 3 days after the Japanese Navy had heavily damaged the US Navy, Günther Lütjens led his terrifying carrier fleet, sailing in mighty fashion from the military port of Wilhelmshaven. He was to lead the fleet around the North Sea to execute a mission: an air raid on Iceland.

Compared to the Japanese and American naval battles, the German Navy’s foundation was clearly not as robust as it seemed. Although the German Navy’s achievements in the Atlantic were in no way inferior to those in the Pacific, this still couldn’t hide the insufficiency in the number of its capital ships. Lütjens was leading the main force of the German High Seas Fleet this time, but at full strength, he only had three carriers accompanying him.

The carrier Bismarck had been sent for a major overhaul after its last voyage. The carrier Tirpitz was also undergoing modernization. Lütjens could only move his flagship to the carrier Imperium, setting sail menacingly with the older Graf Zeppelin and Preussen, heading toward Iceland.

Recently, Lütjens was half-happy and half-worried. His fleet no longer had to face the embarrassing situation of being unable to set sail due to fuel shortages, which made him ecstatic. He had even proposed various plans for a decisive battle with the British Navy, hoping to achieve the dream of completely defeating the British Royal Navy and making the German Navy number one in the world. But when German intelligence confirmed the shipbuilding program the US Navy was executing, he, the commander of the German High Seas Fleet, was immediately plunged into gloom.

A report from Army intelligence showed that the US Navy was simultaneously building 10 Essex-class aircraft carriers. Four of these carriers had a special bow design, clearly prepared for Atlantic sea conditions. The German Naval High Command, upon receiving this intelligence, was completely shocked by America’s powerful industrial manufacturing capability. Only now did they realize that to ascend to the throne of the world’s number one navy, defeating the British Royal Navy was far from enough.

Who could have imagined that when the United States fully mobilized and entered a state of war, it would possess the capability to simultaneously produce over a thousand tanks, nearly ten thousand aircraft, and nearly a hundred ships? This arsenal was even larger than the American weapons Germany had destroyed, which couldn’t help but instill a sense of pessimism in those who knew.

At this moment, everyone finally understood why the Führer insisted, after attacking France, on gritting his teeth, bearing the pressure of enormous losses, and ignoring the massing of Soviet troops, to stubbornly fight a landing war in Britain. If they hadn’t defeated the British homeland, Germany might now be drowned in an ocean of American-made planes and artillery.

“Even if we have 3,000 ace pilots, we cannot withstand such terrifying attrition.” This was the grave statement from Air Force commander Field Marshal Kesselring after seeing the US aircraft production totals. He was so pessimistic that he believed the German Air Force, even now, could only barely be considered to have a fighting chance against the US. To maintain an advantage, they would need at least 2,000 more fighters and 4,000 more bombers.

Lütjens glanced at the carriers Drache and Blücher being fitted out in the harbor, then averted his gaze as his carrier moved. At full strength, he had only managed to scrape together 7 aircraft carriers. The Americans, not counting those already sunk, were on track to have 10 or more. This naval resource competition was truly a case of “comparisons are infuriating.”

Unfortunately, he didn’t know that, if this were history, his historical counterpart would have only one pitiful battleship. He would have been chased and intercepted by the British Royal Navy without even seeing a US carrier fleet. After trading the British battlecruiser Hood for his own ship through sheer, heaven-defying luck, he would have been annihilated in the Atlantic a few days later.

Now, he had 7 carriers to fight with, which was the absolute most his Führer had painstakingly managed to scrape together for him. Germany was not a “chosen nation” like the United States, an island-continent rich in resources between two oceans. It was impossible to abandon the Army to prioritize the Navy and Air Force. This doomed Germany, like China, to follow “Continentalism,” where the Army always occupied the most important, priority position for development.

This time, Lütjens didn’t even have the battleship Admiral Raeder accompanying him. After bombarding Iceland, that warship had not returned to Germany. It was ordered to northern Britain for a “friendly visit,” then refueled in Liverpool before heading south to Gibraltar for repairs. The German Navy was trying hard to adapt to its new role as a global navy, which inevitably created the drawback of dispersed forces. However, at present, the German Navy had no natural enemies in the Atlantic, so this level of force dispersal was still within the high command’s tolerance.

“Have the destroyer squadron turn on their radar and search the nearby sea.” Lütjens gave his first combat order of the voyage as his fleet sailed out of Wilhelmshaven. The naval aviation’s carrier-based reconnaissance planes were already prepped, waiting in takeoff positions on the deck, ready to launch at a moment’s notice. The entire fleet was normal, and it wasn’t long before they were sailing at over 20 knots.

To say the navy was “burning oil” was less accurate than saying it was “burning money.” Tens of thousands of tons of heavy oil were consumed at a moment’s notice. If this oil were converted to gasoline or diesel, it could probably fuel a tank corps’ operations for several weeks. Add in equipment wear and maintenance, ammunition consumption, and personnel costs—compared to the Army and Air Force, the Navy was a true luxury item.

On Lütjens’ flagship, the Imperium, alone, the massive galley had to prepare over 1,600 breakfasts before 7 AM and the same number of lunches before 12 PM. If there was a combat mission, this schedule might be even tighter. The entire warship was built from over ten thousand tons of steel. Every weld and every rivet had to be checked daily. This was not a war against the enemy, but a war against oneself.

“Launch the anti-submarine helicopters to patrol the surrounding waters… Have the patrol planes take off to guard the nearby airspace… Step up training; it’s not easy to get a chance to sortie!” Lütjens continued to give orders, looking at the busy officers on the bridge.

On the surface, the navy’s tight fuel reserves seemed to have eased, but Germany’s oil shortage had only been partially alleviated. The Führer had practically made wild promises in the “Wartime Economic Development Report,” even promising to be the first to lift fuel consumption restrictions in core cities like Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, Rotterdam, and Warsaw. While this move made the civilians cheer, it instantly added 3 million civilian motor vehicles in Germany, pushing fuel consumption to a new level.

The military was very dissatisfied with this lifting of the fuel restrictions. Because of this move, German fuel reserves had not increased by a single drop, even after the Libyan oil fields expanded production. Guderian even wrote a letter asking Akado why he was pulling the rug out from under the military at such a time. However, after Akado replied, Guderian never mentioned the topic of national oil policy again.

In truth, Akado had no choice. He had to distribute some of the “war dividends” to the people to have the confidence to resolve the various domestic contradictions the war had brought. He and his propaganda department had been constantly publicizing the various benefits of the war, but the people who believed in the Führer needed to see those benefits with their own eyes.

As the war progressed, Akado was already lifting restrictions on many industries. The first was the most important: the food industry. When the German army entered Ukraine, Akado lifted the wartime decree restricting the sale of grain in the homeland. The military was unhappy for a time, but the subsequent stable food prices and the soaring public support for the Führer proved that lifting the restriction had achieved excellent results.

Emboldened by this success, Akado played the same card again. He subsequently lifted the alcohol restrictions, allowing the public sale of various fine wines on weekends in Germany and France. This move once again caused the Third Reich to cheer. The war seemed to be moving further and further away, and the good life seemed to have already begun.

Even more daringly, Akado then took 20 percent of the steel production and allocated it to entrepreneurs to produce more civilian goods. This was the fundamental reason why Linus was later able to control a portion of the Norwegian iron ore. Although the process had been somewhat “unpleasant,” Akado still felt that this method of “taking from the people and using for the people” could win even more support from the German populace.

And so this time, in the area of fuel, he began the same reform.

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