Chapter 234 European Maritime Power
Under the warm winter sun, as the first Messerschmitt fighter with its sleek monoplane design flew over the North Sea, the undulating sea surface shimmered with dazzling white light. The two German warships that had triumphed in the night battle had slowed down, their lowered boats busy retrieving survivors floating amidst various debris and oil slicks, while the once proud cruisers of the British Empire, built with considerable expense and pride, were nowhere to be seen.
The changes of an era are often wrought through the violent means of war, and a seemingly small battle may have impacts far beyond mere casualty figures!
Anglesey Island in Wales and Dublin in Ireland faced each other across the sea, with only a few tens of kilometers separating them in a straight line. On this pleasant morning, German Air Force Chief of Staff, Major General Hans Rogen, received orders from High Command. Accompanied by his staff, he boarded two Junkers Ju 52 transport planes and slowly flew over the strait, landing directly at the solemn atmosphere of Dublin International Airport.
With the British Empire on its knees, under such favorable circumstances, the Irish, who had long sought freedom and independence, finally abandoned their cautious stance towards the war. After days of diplomatic negotiations, Ireland's 58-year-old President and leader of the independence struggle, De Valera, decided on the day of the German capture of Belfast to accept a series of conditions proposed by the German government, secretly aligning the country with the Axis powers at the most critical moment— at the request of the Irish government, the German High Command immediately agreed to assume responsibility for the air and sea defense of Northern Ireland. Accordingly, the German Air Force prepared to deploy a portion of the 3rd Air Fleet directly to designated areas in Ireland, with specific arrangements to be handed over to professional air force officers by the diplomatic team already in Ireland.
In his dealings with the Irish military leadership for the first time, Rogen carefully discerned their desires and frustrations amidst their caution: at the outbreak of the war, Ireland had only 40,000 regular troops and 200,000 reserves, a force that remained unexpanded before crossing into British territory to demonstrate a "firm neutral stance." In terms of weaponry, the Irish Army mostly used guns from the previous war, lacking tanks, with a paltry number of armored vehicles, inadequate heavy artillery. Hence, when this force encountered British resistance in Northern Ireland, they refrained from bold attacks, currently still gazing towards Belfast from the banks of the River Neagh!
As for Ireland's air and naval power, compared to neighboring Britain and France, it was like a rabbit in front of adults, with most combat aircraft purchased from Britain. The most advanced fighter was the Gladiator, considered obsolete by the Germans on the battlefield, and there were only two types of bombers, the Vildebeest and the Warshite. Moreover, in 1940, Ireland had no navy of its own; some small vessels assumed the heavy responsibility of guarding the country's long coastline, lacking the capability to operate on the high seas, unable even to resist an attack from a small British fleet!
After gaining a practical understanding of the strength and deployment of the Irish military, Rogen realized that this new ally could only play a political and strategic role in the short term, while military involvement would require significant manpower and resources from Germany. However, Ireland's geographical location was of utmost importance for Germany to expand its maritime and aerial power across Northwestern Europe, and fully occupying this weak country did not fit Germany's strategic layout. Thus, the most common means were employed: leasing airports, ports, and barracks, while providing direct protection for a certain period!
Under the cautious introduction of the Irish military, Rogen finally gained a more direct understanding of Ireland's military deployment. Initially, he proposed to hand over Dublin Airport, which had complete facilities, to the German Air Force, but the Irish officers vehemently rejected the suggestion, informing the young German Air Force Major General that no area within 50 kilometers of Dublin would be available for any foreign military to station!
The capital, for a nation, was not only a political center but often also a symbol of national and spiritual identity, sacred and inviolable in the eyes of the people. The Irish firm stance on Dublin reminded Rogen of London, of another historical time and space, Moscow and Berlin. Nowadays, the British "government of salvation" organized by the Duke of Windsor was being vigorously established, and over 2,000 reorganized "salvation army" soldiers had begun patrolling major cities in southern England, while isolated London, with the direct intimidation of five heavy artillery trains by the Germans, became increasingly precarious—these large-caliber long-range guns bombarded the industrial areas south and north of the city and the eastern mouth of the Thames River at regular intervals every day, with the astonishing power of the high-explosive shells causing tremendous shock to the entire city!
Victory in the British battle was imminent, and the Germans appeared particularly generous on the Irish issue. After two hours of brief negotiations, a field airport north of Dublin, near the border, and the Burtonport Airport in northwest Ireland were provided to the German Air Force for stationing (there was hardly any other option). The German Air Force could also use the military airports left by the British in Northern Ireland and make corresponding expansions. As for the Belfast issue, representatives sent by the German Navy quickly reached a preliminary agreement with the Irish military: this large port would be provided to German ships on a leased basis, serving as the only military input port for Germany in Ireland!
Before noon, the German military delegation submitted all the proposed terms for signing back to the homeland. In a rigorous and proactive atmosphere, De Valera held a high-level banquet for the visiting German military and political representatives in Dublin. At the moment when German and Irish dignitaries were toasting each other, over a hundred kilometers away in Belfast, two German warships that had cleared up the aftermath were slowly heading towards the previously grounded British battleship, HMS Warspite.
"Raise the white flag of surrender, or face annihilation!" The leading German warship flashed an international signal with its signal lamp, while aligning its main guns fore and aft on the already dilapidated British battleship, HMS Warspite.
The British officers and men, who had been besieged on the ship for nearly twenty hours, were not to be outdone, responding with a salvo from one of their main guns—due to the complete destruction of the ship's power system in the German dive-bomber attack, not even backup power remained, and the passage to the forward magazine was completely blocked by explosions, leaving no main guns capable of firing!
The shells fired by the British ship raised pillar-like splashes in front of the German battleship, but they appeared feeble in the face of its massive hull.
At a distance of 5,000 meters, the main guns of the two German battleships flattened, loading high-explosive shells. After a final warning, they unleashed a cannonade that made the entire harbor tremble.
Many German paratroopers witnessed this unprecedented "spectacle" from both sides of the harbor, while a young lieutenant officer wrote in his diary: "It looked like two strong young men beating up a drunken old man. All you could see was the young men punching repeatedly, with the old man having no chance to fight back. Our fleet only fired four salvos, and the deck of the British battleship could no longer distinguish between turrets and bridges! The fire on board was intense, and although our ships tried to extinguish it with water cannons, they ultimately failed. It burned for a full 4 hours, and I heard that if it weren't for the main ammunition depot being submerged in seawater, it could have been blown to nothing but a skeleton!"
In the German navy's war plans, battleships like the "HMS Hood," which were slightly older but relatively successful in design, would be refitted according to the integrity of their hulls. Ideally, if the hull was intact after brief repairs, they would return to service as combat vessels. If only the hull remained intact, they would be converted into aircraft carriers. If the situation was worse, they would be scrapped!
Under the stubborn resistance of the British, the "HMS Hood" evidently became the latter. However, in the Battle of Belfast, the German army paid a considerable price with nearly a thousand paratroopers. The under-construction British aircraft carrier "HMS Audacious" and the partially completed battleship "HMS Prince of Wales" were soon taken over by the German navy. After several months of construction and modifications, the former would become the second heavy aircraft carrier to enter service in the German navy after the "Graf Zeppelin" (commemorating the most unfortunate commander-in-chief of the air force in history, whose death had a significant impact on the development of the German navy). The latter, due to its mixed layout of twin and quadruple gun turrets, was completely unsuitable for conversion to German equipment. It wasn't until the German army occupied the northern British factories and resumed production that it was equipped with ten 14-inch caliber main guns. After joining the German navy, this battleship was named the "Graf Spee" (in memory of the German Deutschland-class armored ship that sank in Montevideo Harbor in 1939)!
On the day after the Battle of the North Sea, dozens of ships laden with personnel and equipment began to leave small ports in northern Scotland such as Mallaig and Ayr. These ocean-going vessels, which could have assembled and departed from major ports like Glasgow and Liverpool, were now only able to form convoys in the waters off northwestern Britain. Due to consecutive defeats in combat, the Royal Navy only dispatched an old cruiser and four American-assisted Town-class destroyers for escort. Among the convoy were several fast ocean liners that had dominated the seas during peacetime. These luxurious ocean liners, which constantly pursued new speed records during peacetime, were not idle during the war. In just the last three months of 1940, they transported over 60,000 Federal troops from North America and Oceania to aid Britain, and in the first month of 1941, they transported over 30,000 British military and civilians to Canada from Britain. However, as these maritime "greyhounds" sailed through the seas south of Iceland, they discovered two large warships with extremely high speeds charging out of the Danish straits, with the lead ship being the majestic German battleship "Bismarck"!
At this moment, British sailors and their passengers finally realized soberly that the naval supremacy of Europe no longer belonged to the once glorious Royal Navy of the British Empire!