Chapter 45 I'm a madman, not a scum

In 2006, near a seaport called "Montevideo" in Uruguay, someone salvaged a strange thing: a 300-kilogram bronze eagle. It was the head portrait of the German armored warship Graf Spee.Sixty or seventy years ago, the ship was bombed and sunk there. This is a very good boat.Looking through the World War II memoirs of many great people, many people have praised this boat.If the Germans themselves boasted, such as Dönitz boasted, or Raedel boasted, that's fine; the key point is that even Churchill boasted.Churchill wrote "Memoirs of World War II" and accidentally won the Nobel Prize for Literature.He gave the German ship two such comments-"brave and courageous" and "elusive".

As I said before, this ship was a German armored ship during World War II.Please note that the name "armored ship" sounds majestic, but it is actually something that is not up and down, and even a bit embarrassing. Among the warships at that time, the most powerful big brother in the rivers and lakes was called a battleship. You can tell by the name, Battleship, with a displacement of more than 30,000 tons; and the heavy cruiser below, with a displacement of about 10,000 tons. The Germans wanted to build battleships, but Britain and France forbade them.You know, Germany was defeated in World War I and was forced to sign the "Treaty of Versailles", which forbade the building of battleships.In fact, not to mention battleships, even submarines were not allowed before 1935.

The depressed Germans had to drive a few old ships before 1910 for fun. The "Versailles Peace Treaty" also requires that even if the old ship is scrapped, your new replacement ship cannot exceed 10,000 tons, and the caliber of the main gun must not exceed 280 mm. The Germans then made a ruthless—OK!I just use a 10,000-ton ship, install a 280mm gun, make the armor thick, and have a strong battery life. Why don't I beat you anyway? In this way, from 1928 to 1932, the Germans started construction of three such strange ships in one go, namely the "Deutschland", "Admiral Scheer" and today's protagonist "Earl Spey".Among them, the third child "Earl Spey" has the thickest armor and the strongest anti-aircraft firepower, with a small body and thick arms, just like Popeye.

It is neither a battleship nor a heavy cruiser, so it is called a "pocket battleship" or "armored ship".Its design idea is simply wretched - in naval battles, if it encounters an enemy heavy cruiser with a main gun of about 200mm, it will go up and beat them with a main gun of 280mm; if it encounters a heavy cruiser with a main gun of 300mm~ A battleship with a 400mm main gun just patted its ass and left. Britain felt a bit of a headache: this kind of wretched pirate ship, cruisers can't beat it, and battleships can't catch up, it's really a bit difficult to deal with.

Of course, the Germans know that monster ships alone cannot defeat the veteran Seamaster Britain. In 1938, the Germans launched a "Z plan", intending to build warships, planning to build six 50,000-ton battleships, eight 20,000-ton armored ships, four 20,000-ton aircraft carriers, And two hundred and thirty-three submarines.This does not include the two national treasure-class "Bismarck-class" battleships. It's a pity that time is not waiting for us, and the Germans no longer have a peaceful environment for shipbuilding.World War II started soon, and most of these ships were never built.

"Earl Spey", it's up to you brothers, let's go. In fact, the status of the "Earl Spey" among German warships is not too high-level - to see the status of a ship in Germany, one only needs to look at its name. For example, "Bismarck", the iron-blooded prime minister is famous, so this battleship is also very powerful; another example is "Tirpitz", whose name is taken from the Imperial Navy Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, so it is the same as "Tirpitz". "Bismarck" is of the same level, just as good. The "Earl Spey" is obviously a little bit worse. The name is taken from the Earl Spey of the German Navy during World War I. Although he is also a hero, he is only a lieutenant general, and his status is far inferior to the first two cattle.

Just like Quanzhen Sect's warships, the one called Wang Chongyang and Zhou Botong must be better, but the "Qiu Chuji" must be worse, for a reason. If you look through the map, you will know that the Germans have a natural disadvantage when they want to fight a naval battle with the British: the high seas of the Atlantic Ocean are to the west of the UK, not next to your Germany.If you want to hit other people's British sea transportation lines, you have to go around in circles, sneak through the North Sea, slip out of the Shetland-Norwegian Strait, and go to the Atlantic Ocean in their backyard to fight.

This is a big loss--as soon as the German ship comes out, it may be discovered by British planes and ships. During the long journey, you will be stabbed every step of the way, and you will be hit everywhere. They will find a place to beat you; Rushing, rear-end collision, and war damage, the British guy's ship can be repaired at home, but the German guy has to go back to his country to repair it. Every time I look at the map, I think it's really not easy for the Germans to be marines. After the start of World War II, under the command of Captain Langsdorf, the "Earl Spey" set off secretly in advance, bypassed Britain, sneaked into the mid-Atlantic, and then floated there, eating and drinking, waiting for the war .They were very lucky that the British did not notice.

Since you didn't notice it, then don't blame Grandpa for being too cruel. In September 1939, the "Earl of Spey" ended its nap and officially started fighting, first beating the British merchant ship "Lement".The ship weighed 5,000 tons, and without any weapons, it sank after a few shots. Then, it fought more and more fiercely, smashing the merchant ships "Ashley", "Newton Beach", "Hunter", "Triven" and the oil tanker "African Bay". Fearing revenge from the British, Colonel Langsdorf sneaked into the Indian Ocean with his boat, hiding his achievements and fame.After drifting for a month, Langsdorf only lost one ship in the Indian Ocean. He felt unsatisfactory and turned back to the South Atlantic Ocean.

It may be that after holding back in the Indian Ocean for a long time, the "Earl Spey" made a big deal as soon as it returned to the Atlantic Ocean, smashing the 10,000-ton freighter "Doric Star".According to statistics, the "Earl Spey" itself was only a little over 10,000 tons, and the ship that was smashed has already exceeded 50,000 tons. Langsdorf used his troops to hide and disappear.In order to confuse the British, he often changed the appearance of the ship, sometimes repaired a few wooden fake turrets, and sometimes changed the chimney. The "Earl Spey" that the British encountered was different every time. How many armored ships are there in Germany.

Being raped again and again, the British Royal Navy was angry, really angry, and felt that the German ship was too shameless, even more shameless than copying Liushen Leilei's manuscript without signing it.They mobilized more than 40 ships, including battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, etc., and formed eight search squadrons to beat the Germans in the South Atlantic. It must be said that Colonel Langsdorf, though cunning and belligerent, was not brutal.One of his actions made him a good name. Before smashing the enemy's merchant ship, he would always send out a signal, release the lifeboat, and force the enemy crew to abandon the ship and board the "Earl Spey" before attacking.The German media interviewed the old crew at the end of the 20th century. The old man also talked about Langsdorf with respect: "Every time we sink a ship, we will take the other party's crew to the ship and give them food and water." Unless there was resistance, Langsdorf did not kill an innocent crew member of the other party. It is said that even the Wehrmacht Command thought he was too merciful. Finally, a few days after another merchant ship was smashed, on December 13, three hunting ships of the British Navy discovered the "Earl Spey". It is said that Colonel Langsdorf also spotted the approaching British heavy cruiser "Exeter", but he mistook the two ships behind for destroyers, so he planned to go up and beat others up.It was only when we were about to go into battle that we realized that they were not destroyers, but cruisers "Ajax" and "Ares". 1v3?Colonel Langsdorf relied on the thickness of the guns, gritted his teeth, and did it. Isn't it just two more light cruisers? My secondary guns are as thick as his main guns! The course of this battle is well known.The three British warships fought against the "Earl Spey" in a glyph.The German ship bombarded with a 280mm main gun, severely wounding the strongest "Exeter" of the three British ships. It is said that only two-fifths of the main gun ammunition was left at that time. I suddenly remembered the King of the Golden Wheel in the movie, facing Dongxie, Nandi and the old urchin, he threw the wheel on the ground: "I fight alone, I am not afraid of anyone." As night fell and the sea was pitch black, the "Earl Spey" broke out of the encirclement.However, there is nowhere to go in the sea, and the speed of the ship is not dominant, so they can only run while repairing, and plunge into the port of Montevideo in the neutral Uruguay. Later, many people said that the colonel did not understand politics and went to the wrong place. He should go to Argentina, because Argentina is pro-German and Uruguay is pro-British.Anyway, it's easy to be Zhuge Liang in hindsight. International law stipulates that belligerent warships can only spend seventy-two hours in neutral ports.Uruguay wanted the British to win the World Cup, did not give the German team face, and refused to extend the time.The British Royal Navy was blocked outside the port, and added the heavy cruiser "Cumberland", and released false news: the aircraft carrier "Ark Royal" and the battlecruiser "Prestige" also arrived. What the British wanted most was to capture the ship and get key technology like the battle mast, which didn't have to be readjusted after each shot and which gave sailors a very wide field of view. Colonel Langsdorf faces a choice: rush out and die, be captured, or sink? On the night of December 16, Langsdorf made his choice. In the afternoon of the next day, the "Earl Spey" slowly left the port, and thousands of people gathered on the shore to watch.After driving for several nautical miles, the rest of the ship left in lifeboats. The battleship exploded violently and began to sink, even the turret was blown away. This is Langsdorf's choice - sinking.He saved the lives of all crew members.More than a thousand crew members were evacuated to Argentina.Most of them returned to Germany later, and the remaining 300 people settled in Algeria for a long time.All were unharmed. The only exception is Langsdorf himself.After the crew was settled, he took out his pistol, shot himself in the head, and died for the battleship. At that time, it was said that the Argentine media laughed at Langsdorf.To this day, some of us still comment that Langsdorf is a coward: why not kill the general and get out?Why not fight the British ship to kill everyone?That's heroic!We should learn from Deng Shichang, and sink the enemy ship even if we hit it! We are all too familiar with this argument: why don't you fight to the death?Why don't you climb to the finish line?You seriously hurt the feelings of our viewers! Here's a comment that might as well go here: "Langsdorf saved the lives of all the crew. But have you ever wondered if you would be grateful to this man for the rest of your life if we were serving on the Graf Spee?" Throughout World War II, the Japanese army was the favorite to fight to the last man.For example, Yimu Qingzhi, who directly provoked the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, later fought with the Americans in Guadalcanal until they ran out of ammunition and food, and then burned the military flag and disemboweled him.Do you think this team is cute? Reading the history of World War II, there are too many corpses and rivers of blood.Langsdorf at least made one point: Madmen start wars, but scumbags kill innocents. He values ​​the lives of his opponents, as well as the lives of his own fighters.I can't find any suitable words to describe it. There is only one word that is close to it-Knight. The German command did not ask the thousand crew members to work hard, but if you, a Chinese who can't beat you, hate it and feel disappointed, it probably only shows one thing: you have the potential to be a scumbag .