Death Notice

Early the next morning, a convoy of vehicles entered the port of Hamburg. A huge battleship at the dock had already stoked its engines, black smoke billowing from its smokestacks, and was preparing to depart.

“This is… a battleship! Lieutenant Colonel, are we really taking this giant ship to Africa?” Madame Monica looked at the enormous vessel at the dock and asked in astonishment.

“Yes, it’s the Gneisenau. It got damaged by British bombers last autumn and has only just been repaired!” Skorzeny said excitedly. “When the Berlin headquarters sent the telegram, I could hardly believe it. I never thought they’d actually dispatch this battleship!”

“It seems they truly want us to complete this mission successfully!” Baron von Wurdenbeller sighed. “Even the war fanatics at the Army High Command must be tired of this war!”

By 1945, Germany had very few large surface warships left. The remaining ones were forced to stay in dry docks for long periods due to bombing by Allied planes. The fact that they sent the last remaining Gneisenau to assist in Operation Heracles showed how much importance the Third Reich placed on this mission.

The Gneisenau battleship had a standard displacement of 31,000 tons and a full load displacement of 37,000 tons. It was 231 meters long, 30 meters wide, with a draft of nearly 9 meters. It carried a crew of over 1,600 and had three aircraft. Its maximum speed was 31.2 knots, and its cruising speed was 15 knots.

It had two triple-barreled 283mm main guns at the bow and one at the stern. It also had twelve 150mm secondary guns, fourteen twin-barreled 105mm anti-aircraft guns, sixteen twin-barreled 37mm anti-aircraft guns, and two triple 533mm torpedo launchers.

Qin Lun licked his lips as he looked at the giant battleship before him. He liked this big toy. Since he was a child, he had never owned many toys. Combined with the violent events he had experienced in his life, it made him even fonder of such grand, spectacular, and cold-hearted war machines.

The Gneisenau was one of the two Scharnhorst-class battleships of the Third Reich. Its sister ship, the Scharnhorst, had been sunk in battle two years earlier.

When the Third Reich started the war, its navy hadn’t actually completed its shipbuilding plans. There weren’t many large surface warships, and its strength was far behind that of its main opponent, England. Because the German navy lacked the strength to engage the British in a decisive naval battle, its main combat objective was maritime raiding warfare. With this goal in mind, during the design phase of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau battleships, speed was made the top priority, with protection as the second priority. This came at the cost of sacrificing some firepower.

The Gneisenau’s top speed reached 31 knots, almost on par with light cruisers and destroyers. It could break through British fleet blockades on its own and enter the Atlantic Ocean to conduct raiding operations against the Allies.

“Lieutenant Colonel, why aren’t we taking a submarine to Africa? Even if the Gneisenau can break through the British fleet’s blockade, it’s such a huge target that it might not make it back. The British navy will be waiting like a pack of wolves on its return route,” Captain Bock asked with concern.

“Captain, you haven’t considered the speed of U-boats. We have less than eight days left. The British have blocked the English Channel, so to get to Africa we must detour through the North Sea, enter the Atlantic Ocean, and then sail around to Morocco in Africa!” Skorzeny said with a bitter smile. “At a submarine’s speed, it would take more than ten days. We would miss the Allied leaders’ summit.”

Hearing this, everyone also smiled wryly. The Third Reich’s African front had been completely abandoned. The former colonies of Tunisia and Algeria, which belonged to Germany and Italy, were all lost. If those two strategic locations were still under their control, they could have flown to Africa and then traveled overland to Morocco.

Different from Qin Lun’s original timeline, in this one, both Moscow and the Transcaucasus region of the Soviet Union were occupied by Germany. The main Soviet forces had retreated beyond the Ural Mountains. With control over vast Soviet territories, especially the oil fields in the Transcaucasus, the Third Reich had much more abundant resources compared to the original timeline. The only hardship was the shortage of manpower. Many soldiers on the battlefield now were under the age of 18, essentially child soldiers.

The Soviet Union, having lost its European coastline and a large population from European lands, was much weaker than in the original timeline. Allied aid could only come through the Far East and then across Siberia, which involved heavy logistical losses. The Soviets often had to accumulate supplies for almost half a year before launching an offensive on the Eastern Front. They posed little threat to the Third Reich.

As for the Western Front in Europe, the United States and Britain had finally managed to liberate France with great difficulty, pushing the front line to Belgium and Luxembourg.

However, because American military casualties were more than ten times higher than in the original timeline, anti-war sentiment was surging at home. Additionally, since they had already achieved victory in the Asian theater, their motivation for this war was rapidly declining.

By this point in the war, Japan of the Axis Powers had been defeated. Italy was on its last legs and practically irrelevant. In reality, only the Third Reich was left fighting alone. The Allies were also exhausted and had reached a stalemate on both the Eastern and Western Fronts.

Unlike before, the Axis Powers now sought a dignified end to the war. The Allies, on the other hand, planned to gather their strength for one final decisive battle to completely shatter the Third Reich’s last hard shell.

Both sides clearly understood that the war had reached its final stage. If it couldn’t be concluded within 1945, both sides would likely choose a political settlement instead.