Dunkirk (Part 1)

  "What is this thing, packed tightly in wooden crates?" Captain Rogge of the battleship 'Munich' stood on the open deck outside his command bridge, staring at dozens of wooden crates stacked on the dock in a Belgian port controlled by German troops.

  To his chief of staff Joseph (not to be confused with the Joseph of 7th Panzer Division) and second in command Warlimont.

  "We don't know either, the Navy Command just said it's a newly developed secret weapon, and that it was developed based on the suggestion of the commander of the 8th submarine squadron. That's all the introduction we got from the Navy Command," replied Second Lieutenant Wohrmann.

  "Now the naval headquarters is being intimidated by British spies, last time they failed to steal intelligence on the new submarine of the 8th submarine squadron, now every time the headquarters comes up with something, it's all mysterious and secretive. It's like some things that can't be exposed to sunlight." Deputy Joseph also chimed in.

  "Gentlemen, let's stop discussing now. The flagship is signaling us to disembark and go ashore. Let's go, gentlemen!" Rog ended their discussion.

  Several naval officers disembarked and came onto the dock, where they saw their superiors - Commander-in-Chief of the German High Seas Fleet, Lüttens, and Commander of the 8th Submarine Squadron, G?t. Prien (Thornton) stood together. Behind them was a long line of small cars.

  " Gentlemen, I'm sure you're all wondering what this mysterious weapon is," said Lutjens. "Now Colonel Prien will tell you what it is. It's his invention. These mystery weapons are to be installed on your warships."

  Gentlemen, I won't tell you what this thing is now, because even if I did, you wouldn't believe its power. Let's go to a nearby shooting range that used to belong to the Belgian army. There, you will truly understand the power of this weapon. As we Chinese say, "What is heard is often false, but what is seen is true." Gentlemen, let us go and see the real power of this weapon with our own eyes. Gentlemen, please get on the car.

  The little car pulled the confused naval officers for more than half an hour before arriving at the shooting range. As soon as they got out of the car, the naval officers found a small cannon in front of them, but it was still covered with canvas and its actual structure could not be seen.

  Just as they were puzzled, Zhou Tianlei came up and pulled away the canvas covering it. He handed it over to a naval sailor beside him. Captain Rogge of the 'Munich' battleship and his first mate Joseph and second mate Warmiller took a closer look, and several people couldn't help but be surprised.

  This weapon is actually something they've seen before, the 'Gatling' machine gun that became popular in the 19th century. But this weapon in front of them, apart from having a larger caliber than the Gatling machine gun, has a cover at the base that makes it unclear what's inside. Otherwise, there isn't much difference with the Gatling machine gun.

  When the naval officers had question marks in their stomachs, Zhou Tianlei spoke up: "Everyone must have recognized what kind of weapon this is. Yes, it's the structure of a Gatling gun, but I don't call it a Gatling gun. I call it a 'Dense Formation' air defense system. Someone will definitely ask, since our German army replaced the Gatling gun with the Maxim gun before World War I, why did I revive it? Because it is too useful for dealing with a certain type of target we will encounter in the future. Gentlemen, please look at its firepower demonstration." As he spoke, several naval soldiers came up and stood on both sides of the cannon to operate it.

  At this time, an airplane had already flown in the sky, towing a target. The German naval infantry immediately operated the "Dense Array" anti-aircraft system to aim at the target, and after hearing a sound like a sewing machine working, everyone saw that the barrel of the "Dense Array" anti-aircraft system was emitting dense flames. The target had already fallen to the ground, and several soldiers drove towards the place where the target fell.

  When the target was brought back to show to the naval officers, the officers widened their eyes and saw that the bullet holes on the target were densely packed. It was impossible to count them clearly, Luo Ge couldn't help but think: If this wasn't a target but a real plane, then the plane...

  "Gentlemen, now that you have witnessed the power of the 'Dense Array' air defense system, I will brief you on its technical parameters."

  Caliber 30 mm

  Number of barrels: 7

  Maximum rate of fire: 5,000 rounds/min

  Maximum range 6,000 meters

  Maximum altitude 3500 meters

  Effective range 3500 meters

  When the naval officers heard the data of 5,000 rounds per minute, several of them had already shown a stunned expression on their faces.

  "Is there anything else you gentlemen would like to ask?"

  Rog asked curiously: "Gao Te, how can its firing speed be so high?"

  He pointed to the base covered with a casing and said, "It's them that drive it. Inside here is the power mechanism for this weapon. The biggest difference between the 'Dense Phalanx' anti-aircraft system and the 'Gatling' machine gun is that its power comes from an electric motor in the power mechanism. Its elevation and rotation are all driven by the power mechanism. And the 'Gatling' machine gun is hand-cranked. Of course, just in case, I still retained a manual mechanism on the 'Dense Phalanx' anti-aircraft system. That's why you can see it has such a fast firing speed. Of course, when it's manual, it's much slower. Also, this 'Dense Phalanx' anti-aircraft system is very heavy, so after discussing with Commander Lü Te-yun, we decided to only install this weapon on cruisers and above."

  Zhou Tianlei thought to himself: I've been thinking for a long time, trying to find an effective anti-aircraft weapon for our large surface warships. The current anti-aircraft weapons are useless when facing dense aerial attacks from the enemy, so I thought of the "CIWS" (Close-In Weapon System) that was installed on American warships in my previous life. Just like how the historical HMS Prince of Wales sank due to Japanese naval aviation's torpedo attack. If British warships had this system back then and their power wasn't cut off so quickly, they could have at least dragged down some Japanese planes with them. Now I'm mainly implementing this to counter the huge threat from American naval aviation, although we don't have advanced radar and optoelectronic targeting systems like in my previous life. However, since we're not dealing with high-speed anti-ship missiles, using covering fire against World War II-era planes should still be effective. Once Germany develops more advanced radar, this weapon won't need to be manually operated anymore. Of course, the compromise of its performance means that it has a very large ammunition storage capacity because it needs to cover the entire airspace where enemy planes fly. Therefore, there's no way to install it on anything smaller than a cruiser.

  Of course, these naval officers did not know what Zhou Tianlei was thinking. They just saw him in a daze. Lü Te'en poked him three times with his finger. Zhou Tianlei only woke up then. Lü Te'en stuck his mouth to Zhou Tianlei's ear and said: "Gao Te, you bachelor, are you thinking of women? Want to end your single noble life? But in Germany, there are many beauties who admire you! Do you want me to introduce a few to you? You're the war god of our navy after all!"

  Zhou Tianlei slammed his hand on Lü Tuyuan's back and said in a low voice, "Don't talk nonsense." Then he turned to the other naval officers and said, "Now this weapon has started to be installed on your warships, and the trained gunners have also reported to your warships."

  "Gentlemen, we still have a long way to go ahead of us. The British Home Fleet has not yet been destroyed by us. We still have great battles to fight, and although many of us will die in the process, for the sake of our Navy and for the German people, we must make even greater efforts." As he spoke, he led them in singing "Deutschland über alles", and the officers joined in, tears streaming down their faces.

  At 10 Downing Street, London, Prime Minister Churchill read the joint report and plan of action prepared by the Navy and Air Force. He said to the First Lord of the Admiralty and the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force: "Lord Gort can't wait for us to delay any longer. Just a few hours ago, German armored forces broke through his defensive position on the outskirts of Dunkirk. Although they have established a second line of defense and blocked the German attack, the German heavy artillery has already reached the sea outside Dunkirk. Our troops are in extreme danger. I order you to rescue Gort and his troops at all costs. The ' Dynamo' plan is now resumed."

  "The Minister of the Navy asked: 'We had planned to mobilize the Mediterranean Fleet's warships for the naval battle, but why did you veto this part and not deploy the Mediterranean Fleet's warships?'"

  Churchill stood up, with his hands on the table, staring at the Minister of the Navy and the Air Force Commander, answering word by word: "The first reason is that we have already mobilized ships from the Mediterranean fleet to deal with Germany's surprise attack. The strength of our home fleet is stronger than before. You only see the military benefits of mobilizing the Mediterranean fleet, but you don't see the political drawbacks. We must fulfill our promise to our French allies and let the Mediterranean fleet monitor the Italians who are now restless in the Mediterranean, together with the French fleet, to prevent them from making any moves after our ships withdraw. Although the strength of the French fleet is also sufficient to deal with them. But we still can't withdraw our fleet, we can't make our French allies feel that we have abandoned them, and they are already suffering a lot on land at the hands of the Germans. And now we are facing a Germany that has never been so strong, we must maintain close cooperation with France, I don't want to see any negative impact on our relationship with the French people because of our withdrawal of the Mediterranean fleet."

  "The second reason is the German fleet. Do you think they are a match for our home fleet? No, they are not; their previous victories were only gained over our carelessness. And now that we have put to sea our own home fleet, they will no longer be a match for us. Gentlemen, do you still think it necessary to run the risk of complicating our relations with France by mobilizing the Mediterranean Fleet to fight this German fleet which is so much weaker than ours?"

  The Minister of the Navy said: "We have no problems anymore."

  Churchill said: "Then go ahead and carry out your plan."

  The British Home Fleet was divided into two forces, one consisting of the majority of the fleet's capital ships accompanied by a large number of destroyers to defend against attacks from German U-boats. The other force consisted of several light cruisers and destroyers protecting a flotilla of civilian ships that were preparing to evacuate the BEF from Dunkirk after the main force had defeated the German High Seas Fleet.

  The German High Seas Fleet's scouting U-boats had already discovered them when the British Grand Fleet assembled. The commander of the submarine reported to the German High Seas Fleet by wireless telegraph: "British Grand Fleet assembling." The British Grand Fleet had put out battleships Rodney, Nelson, Bellerophon, Queen Elizabeth, Warrior, Audacious, Revenge and Royal Sovereign (King George V and Prince of Wales were still undergoing sea trials and did not participate in the battle), one battlecruiser Renown and destroyers 1st, 2nd and 5th Flotillas. They had left their base at Scapa Flow and were heading for the English Channel.

  The German High Seas Fleet soon received the report, and Admiral Lütjens was overjoyed when he got it. Now he could finally command his fleet to engage in a decisive battle with the British Home Fleet. Although the German High Seas Fleet had some inferiority compared to the British Home Fleet, now with the full support of the submarine force and air cover, he believed that the day for the German Navy to wash away the shame of the Battle of Jutland had finally arrived.

  He ordered his own Operations Staff to calculate the course, speed and direction of the British naval forces on a sea chart, while reporting the situation to Admiral Raeder at the Naval High Command ashore and requesting full support from German U-boat forces during wartime (Karl D?nitz's 8th U-boat Flotilla had already been assigned to the German High Seas Fleet command, while other U-boat flotillas only provided limited support to the German High Seas Fleet). He also wanted to get support from the German Air Force to annihilate the British Home Fleet.

  The naval command replied that the submarine fleet had made combat preparations and could go into battle at any time, while the German Air Force Command replied that the second air force was ready to strike, waiting for the navy to report their combat area.

  The great decisive battle of the English Channel between Germany and Britain has begun.