Battle of the Third Reich Chapter 468: Jean Barr (top)

"Captain Henslake, this is the last box. If there is no problem, please sign here." The Moroccan businessman pointed at the signature place on the lower edge of the manifest.

"Do you have any good wine here?" The captain of the navy took the pen handed by the merchant and signed the name on the manifest.

"There are some Giles, if you want, you can give you a discount." The Moroccan took the bill from the captain, looked down, and then passed it to the entourage standing behind him.

"What Gilles?" the captain asked, tilting his head in confusion.

"Gires is Gires, good wine." The Moroccan made a gesture of drinking with his fingers.

"This is what the Spanish call it, but it's actually sherry." Corbysky reminded not far away that he was instructing the sailor to take off the net bag and hook.

"Sherry? Is there any whiskey?" Henslake looked at the Moroccan merchant.

"No, the French just moved all my inventory." The businessman shook his head helplessly.

"Well, how much is a bottle."

"Five marks."

"Why don't you grab it?"

"I am a legitimate merchant who clearly marked the price. You can choose not to buy."

"Well, give me fifty bottles. This is fifty marks, even if it's a deposit." The captain of the navy took out a wad of banknotes from his uniform pocket, counted a dozen and handed them to the supplier.

"This is not good enough, okay, when do you want the goods." Seeing the captain's eyes widened, the merchant decided to compromise temporarily.

"The sooner the better."

"Then tomorrow morning, I will have someone deliver the goods. Remember to settle the remaining money by then, Captain Henslake." The businessman smiled and stretched out his right hand to shake hands with the Captain.

When the Moroccan came in a large rowing boat, controlled by twenty strong North African oarsmen, the businessman returned to the rowing boat with his attendants, and he turned around and waved enthusiastically to the captain.

"See you later, Abdul." With a big smile on his face, the captain waved his arms vigorously, as if seeing off a good friend.

"This Moroccan is a slippery head." Kobeski has finished his work.

"But he can get a lot of good things. These wines, except for the officers’ restaurant, are sold in Italy, and the price can at least turn around. I have specifically asked someone to ask about it. The supplies are now tight. , It’s easy to get rid of the cargo.” The navy captain pressed his elbow against his companion’s waist and said mysteriously.

"Well, I'm not very good at this, but I advise you to be careful. Colonel von Camp is not easy to fool."

"Don't worry, I won't violate the military regulations. The lieutenant colonel can't hold my handle." The captain smiled and hooked his friend's shoulder.

"I heard that there might be a battle this time, are you not nervous at all?" Captain Kobeski leaned against the bulletproof fence of the anti-aircraft battery and took out a cigarette case from his uniform pocket.

"What is there to worry about, aren't we here for this? Look around, what a beautiful warship this is." Captain Henseleck drew a cigarette from his friend's cigarette case.

"The problem is that the battleship is about to face the first actual combat, but there are still a large number of systems and equipment that have not been debugged."

"That's why I'm not worried at all. We played a deterrent effect at most in this operation. Of course, Marshal Raidel knew the situation of this ship. He would never take this precious battleship to risk it." Heng Slack comforted his companion, then took out a lighter and lit the cigarette.

"As I said earlier, the Barr’s combat preparations are only 90% complete. Our fire control system still has problems and some necessary tests are needed. For the specific situation, I’m all It's written in the report." Deputy Captain Colonel Hendrick von Kamp reported to the squadron commander seriously.

"The superiors also know about these difficulties, but they can only give us two more days at most. At that time, no matter what, the Barr will have to go with the fleet. Nelson’s engine malfunctioned and she must be removed from the blockade. Replace it online." Major General Walner Stephen, commander of the squadron, pushed a document in front of him to Colonel Kemp.

"Captain Calvitz is temporarily unable to perform his mission. The Headquarters agreed that you will temporarily act for him. Congratulations, Colonel Camp. You are now Jean, the acting captain of the Barr." The Rear Admiral stood up and shook hands with the new acting captain.

"I will fly to Toulon for a meeting tomorrow. I hope you can finish the rest of the work before I come back. I believe you have the ability, Colonel, to remember that the head of state is always paying attention to the progress of the plan, Navy He must not be disappointed." The squadron commander straightened his chest and raised his right arm.

"Hi! Reinhardt!"

"Hi! Reinhardt!" Von Kemp quickly raised his hand in return.

Watching the squadron commander board his shiny transport boat, the acting captain finally sighed. Captain Calvez contracted dysentery in Tunisia. This is really something to be said as a joke. I thought it was just a simple intestinal disease, but I didn’t expect it to cause a series of complications. This poor man Commodore, almost lost his life due to diarrhea. Fortunately, the Navy sent the latest antibacterial drugs by plane, which dragged the captain back from the hands of death, but it was almost half life left.

Kemp had anticipated this meeting today because he was the best candidate to act as a captain. The experienced deputy captain on this battleship has absolute authority. I believe that if he replaces the captain, no officer or soldier on the entire ship will object to it.

"Jean Barr." Standing on the wide front deck, Camp raised his head and looked at the towering bridge. The 47-year-old navy colonel could hardly suppress his excitement at this moment.

At this moment, he finally got his wish and became the captain of a battleship. Although only acting captain, Camp is confident that with his talents, he will soon be able to remove this ugly prefix.

The most powerful battleship in the history of the French navy, quietly docked in the Tunisian harbour. On top of her towering mast, a huge German navy cross flag flew in the wind.

As for how this battleship would fall into the hands of the Germans, there is a very interesting story behind it.

At that time, the German army was approaching Saint-Nazaire. Her sister ship Richelieu hurriedly fled the home port with a ship full of military and political personnel and refugees.

The Barr was also prepared to flee before, but encountered troubles during the test run of the power system. Because the workers were rushing to work, many pipelines and lines were not tested. As a result, the boiler was started shortly after the four steam turbines Problems occurred in the three machines one after another. The temperature in the machine room rose sharply, and several steam pipes were broken.

At this moment, it is obviously too late to return to the dock to replace and debug. The German vanguard is less than 20 kilometers away from the port. The light reconnaissance aircraft of the German Army has appeared over the city of Saint-Nazaire.

The first captain of the battleship was French Navy Colonel Pierre Jean Ronach. He immediately decided to stop unnecessary repairs. He gathered the shipyard’s technicians to discuss relying on the existing power and the previously prepared Can the two port tugboats let this warship leave the port?

At the meeting, Deputy Captain Roderick Du Berticik and Naval Supervision Engineer Dr. Gasquet put forward a new proposal. They believed that the battleship should be scuttled directly in the dock. This can prevent the pride of the French navy from falling into the hands of the German aggressors.

The Penoe shipyard of the USS Jean Barr had no suitable slipway before. In order to build this unprecedented French navy ship~IndoMTL.com~ they deliberately chose a suitable river bank upstream of the shipyard and built it. A brand new concrete cofferdam, just inside a thick concrete wall, allowed the Barr to complete the preliminary construction and outfitting.

In the original plan, while the warship was being built, the local river management department would excavate a channel suitable for warships to pass between the dock and the main channel of the port.

However, due to bureaucracy and several consecutive accidents, the progress of the project is far behind the original plan.

The French thought that the German army would give them enough time to complete the construction of this battleship. In the eyes of the government bureaucrats, the dredging project of the channel became less urgent, so they put their precious manpower and The equipment was deployed to the fortifications of the southern military port.

So until the day before the German army arrived, this channel had just been completed in a hurry, and it was not even time to send someone to accept it, so I had to dispatch a ship to conduct a trial voyage.

Now, what is placed before Captain Ronak is a difficult multiple-choice question. If he insists on breaking through the siege, he must risk the warship stranding in the channel. (To be continued.)

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