Chapter 568: Operation Greenland (2)

At five o'clock in the morning of June 6, the US fleet, or more precisely the US-Canadian joint fleet, arrived in the waters more than 200 kilometers from Greenland.

As mentioned earlier, Canada seized British warships and gold under the instigation of the United States. As a result, Germany declared war on the United States and Canada at the same time.

Canada is in trouble now.

The British king is the "nominal" monarch of Canada, but it does not mean that Canada is a vassal of the United Kingdom. It has constitutional, diplomatic, economic, and monetary autonomy. Therefore, Canada's currency is not the pound but the Canadian dollar.

However, although it has its own currency, as one of the Commonwealth, Canada naturally hoards a large amount of pound foreign exchange, as well as a lot of foreign exchange from European countries.

As a result of this declaration of war, the pound and European foreign exchange in the Canadian treasury will soon become waste paper and cannot be exchanged for the newly issued euro in Europe.

Canada was completely panicked. You know, the value of those gold is not even one-tenth of the foreign exchange. Isn't this a big loss? The Canadians secretly contacted Germany through neutral countries such as Switzerland and expressed their willingness to return British warships and gold.

Yannick would not agree, but it was not impossible to exchange it. Hasn't the war been declared? Since you are showing weakness, then pay the war reparations.

Canada was of course not happy. There was no war, so why pay the war reparations? After hearing the amount of reparations offered by Germany, the Canadian ambassador to Switzerland almost died on the spot. This is naked robbery! If they really paid this amount of war reparations, the whole country would go bankrupt.

The negotiations were deadlocked for more than half a month, and there was still no progress. The German side officially announced that the euro exchange work was successfully completed and no more exchange would be carried out thereafter. Now Canada's foreign exchange has become a pile of waste paper, and the domestic economy has been greatly impacted. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was almost forced to resign.

On the American side, because there was really no more warships to be dispatched, Ernest could only contact Canada to send troops together. The Canadian Prime Minister hesitated again and again and agreed to cooperate with this action. After all, if he did nothing, he would be the only one to suffer. Maybe following the United States to bite off a few bites of meat from Germany can recover some losses. Moreover, once the airport in Greenland is built, all major cities in Canada, including the capital, will be exposed to the combat range of German bombers, which is not good news.

Canada has no warships to show off, so it can only send those seized British warships, the Glorious aircraft carrier, the Ramillies battleship, the Repulse battlecruiser and several cruiser destroyers.

It seems very powerful to have both battleships and aircraft carriers, but these are antiques from the First World War.

The Glorious fleet aircraft carrier was originally a light battlecruiser of the British Royal Navy. It was started in 1915, served in 1916, and retired in 1919. It was converted into an aircraft carrier in 1924 and re-served in 1930. It carries more than 40 "Sea Gladiator" carrier-based fighters and "Swordfish" torpedo planes, and its combat effectiveness can be imagined.

The Ramillies battleship is the third ship of the Revenge-class battleship, which was started in 1913. Although it was the third ship, it was the last of the five Revenge-class battleships to be commissioned, and it was not officially commissioned until September 1917. By the time it was combat-ready, World War I was almost over, so the ship did not have the opportunity to participate in the war.

In 1926, the Ramillies battleship underwent its first modernization modification, during which the ship made a slight improvement to the power system and improved its reliability; the ship's turret-type secondary guns were removed and replaced with turret-type secondary guns. Before the outbreak of World War II, the Ramillies was modernized again, and this modification focused on strengthening its air defense capabilities. The ship was equipped with a new air-to-sea search radar and fire control radar, as well as a large number of small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns.

By the outbreak of World War II, the Ramillies had been in service for more than 20 years. Although their age was slightly shorter than that of the Queen Elizabeth class, the original speed of the Revenge class was relatively slow, and the speed dropped before World War II. The speed of the Ramillies had long been less than 20 knots.

The Repulse was built during World War I. It was the second ship of the Reputation-class battlecruiser. It was launched in January 1916 and entered service in August of the same year. It began to be modernized in 1933.

This is an old antique from World War I.

The person in charge of this operation was Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher of the United States Navy. "Strange, why haven't we encountered any German patrol ships yet?" In the original time and space, Fletcher was the commander of the Battle of Midway. He was in command of the 17th Task Force on the Yorktown, and together with the 16th Task Force commanded by Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance, they sank four main aircraft carriers of the Combined Fleet in one day on June 4, 1942, thus ushering in a turning point in the Pacific War.

Commander Fletcher actually did not agree with the surprise attack plan, which was full of uncertainties and had too many unknown factors. The danger of the plan was immeasurable. But President Roosevelt was determined to take Greenland, so he had to bite the bullet and execute it.

From the time they set out until now, the feeling of uneasiness in their hearts has not only not faded, but has become even stronger. For example, now, we are already 200 kilometers away from Greenland. Logically, we should have come into contact with the German maritime patrols long ago.

Could it be that the Germans are lazy? Commander Fletcher immediately rejected this ridiculous idea. If the Germans were so lazy, how could they conquer most of Europe?

Maybe there is some conspiracy, and the Germans have already learned of their action plan this time?

Just as he was thinking about all sorts of things, the adjutant next to him asked. "Commander, is it time to launch the carrier-based aircraft?"

In their combat plan, the carrier-based aircraft of the aircraft carrier are to provide air defense for the battleship. They are not to fly hundreds of kilometers away to fight. Although the German aircraft carrier operations on the European battlefield were brilliant, the Americans had not had time to change their combat habits.

At this moment, a burst of rapid alarms suddenly sounded from the outer destroyers, followed by a clear and tense report. "Enemy ships were found 30 kilometers to the left of the fleet at 80 degrees!"

Fletcher was startled and asked hurriedly. "Is it an enemy fleet?!"

After a few seconds, the destroyer reported again. "Five destroyers and 10 speedboats."

Fletcher frowned slightly. "Patrol?"

"Do we need to sink them?"

"That's just a waste of time, the fleet is moving at full speed!" There is no concealment now. Even if this patrol is sunk, Greenland should have received an alarm. "Take off the carrier-based aircraft and start air defense operations." According to intelligence, there are less than 50 German fighters in Greenland, and no attack aircraft to be feared. However, even fighters can carry torpedoes to launch attacks, so we need to be on guard.