Battle of the Third Reich

Less than five minutes into the war, three of the Royal Navy’s four battleships were shot. The goddess of luck apparently did not stand on the British side.

Admiral Tovey has discovered that the British fleet is not as good as its opponents at long-range strikes. Although the British Royal Navy fleet has been training for many years, most of them are only focused on nautical and battlefield drills, and there are not many real live-fire shooting experiences. Because of the global economic crisis, which also affects military funding, the warship's barrel life is limited. It is better to save or save a little.

Queen Elizabeth stayed on the berth for almost a year, and just returned to service less than two months. During the conversion, the original crew of this battleship was assigned to other battleships of the local fleet, most of them with the big battleships. Sinking into the sea, the survivors are now cutting potatoes in the German prisoner of war camp. At present, only the engine and navigation department of this battleship are elderly. Even the gunners are transferred from cruisers and artillery schools. Previously, they only received a few live ammunition launch training and hit fixed targets. The results are terrible.

The modernization of the bridge was not completed, but the structure and pipeline of the bridge were messed up. The equipment reinstallation and commissioning were too rushed. Now the command and communication system of this battleship has frequent failures, otherwise Tovey will not choose the Kent. This heavy cruiser came to serve as the flagship.

Now the question of whether the Kent can still assume the responsibility of the flagship command has been put on the table. The fleet staff team unanimously asked Tovey to change the flagship immediately and transfer the command to the yet-innocent Cumberland heavy cruiser. The heavy cruiser in the far right position was fortunately not attacked by the German ship, and it also shot five rounds of volley. Although the landing point of the shell was a little off, the overall performance looked very good.

The fire at the rear of the Kent has seriously affected command and combat. The position of the German shells was too tricky. When the warship was designed, the designer might never have thought that this position would be shot. The damage control team suffered heavy losses during the second explosion, and the surviving damage control personnel spent their lives between the three decks. Toxic smoke filled the corridor of the lower cabin, and the lower sailors had all put on gas masks. Since the cabin cannot be forcibly ventilated, because it will promote the fire, the smoke cannot be quickly exhausted, and the combustion consumes the oxygen in the cabin, and many sailors have suffered from oxygen deficiency.

It is very difficult to rely on ordinary water sources to extinguish fuel flames. The damage management team has exhausted all professional fire extinguishing agents and fire fighting sand buckets. It can only control the flames between several layers of cabins. It takes a long time to suppress the fire extinguisher. But look at the current situation. It is impossible to obtain any external support, nor is it possible to give them more time. The British fleet is now surging on the sea at a high speed of 24 knots. At this speed, it is impossible to drop the boat safely, so there is no mention of any transfer flagship. Tovey rejected the proposal of the staff and decided to stay in the Command the battle on the Kent.

The black fuel smoke covered the second half of the Kent's hull, and the billows of smoke drifted two or three nautical miles away. The signal flag on the main mast was already indistinguishable. Tovey could only rely on radio to direct the fleet's actions.

Germany has made several direct hits. The fleet has obtained accurate shooting parameters, and now they can easily hit the head of the British ship simply by adding and subtracting numbers on the original parameters step by step.

The German has already played rhythm. Tovi certainly will not allow this to continue. He decided to change his formation and course. Disrupt the beat of the German Navy. Tovey knew that in the long-range artillery battle, the Royal Navy Fleet is now at a disadvantage. In terms of the number of artillery and accuracy, the Royal Navy has actually lost to the German counterparts. Tovi decided to close the distance between the two sides. Enter the mid-range battle line artillery battle to fully utilize the existing firepower of the four battleships, and at the same time allow the light cruisers to enter the battle. The Royal Navy has an advantage over the light cruiser.

At 3:22 on the afternoon of the dth, after the sixth round of salvo, after the German fleet's muzzle flashed, Tovey issued a formation change order, and the four battleships began to turn to the left 30 degrees at the same time. , From the horizontal team to the column, led by the Kent, ranked second is the battleship Queen Elizabeth, followed by the Berwick, and finally the Cumberland. The light cruiser column also began to turn when the battleship was transformed, following the battleship column. The entire fleet was pulled into a long single column and arranged in a standard battle line artillery formation.

Tovey's tactics were effective. Due to the rapid change of the British fleet and turning to the front, on the course of the Royal Navy's original route, a forest of water pillars stood tall, and this round of shelling by the German Navy was completely missed.

Kent advanced at a high speed in the position of the leader. She was finally able to use all the turrets to launch the bombardment. Although the smoke covered the x and y turrets, they could still shoot with the parameters given by the main gun command. The black smoke of the Kent also played a part of the cover. It was difficult for the Germans to distinguish the ship shadows in the smoke. They could only perform a rough aim, and the drop point of the shell began to become loose and aimless.

But relatively, the smoke also affected the range and aim of the subsequent ships. The bombardment of the Queen Elizabeth became more chaotic, and the spread of the shell's landing point was too large to be seen by the Germans.

After the change, Berwick, a messy front deck, failed to fire a shell. The problem with the front turret of the Berwick has seriously damaged the combat performance of this heavy cruiser. After the explosion, the azimuth of the Berwick artillery command post was stuck, and a piece of armor debris from the turret a was hit. The root of the range finder penetrated the layer of iron and was embedded in the refractive lens group.

At present, this battleship can only rely on the backup command post at the top of the tail hangar for range shooting. Due to the smoggy sea surface, the backup command post cannot see the shadow of the enemy ship, and it is impossible to report the bombardment parameters. The original flagship Kent can use the shooting clock on its rear mast to inform the bureaucrats of the bombardment parameters. Now that location has been burned into a sea of ​​fire, and the black smoke is billowing, even if the head-mounted elephant cannot be seen on it.

Because the Cumberland was in the last place, the smoke drifted to her and was blown high by the sea air currents. This heavy cruiser happily shot the German fleet with four turrets. It may be practice and perfection. After a few passes After retiring, he finally fired a crossfire on a German light cruiser. The Cumberland was full of joy. Just as they were preparing to continue to get the first effective hit by the British side in this naval battle, the German fleet also began to change.

Rydell was definitely not an embroidered pillow. Although he performed a bit badly in front of Hitler, he could not obliterate his contribution to the development of the German navy. He was once the youngest chief of staff of Hipper, and while Tovey was still working **** the destroyer, he had already squatted in the command room of the battlecruiser Luzo to plan a fleet battle.

As soon as Tovi changed his formation, he guessed the opponent's attempt. The British were preparing for a close game, which was exactly what he wanted.

The high seas fleet then fired two rounds of volley, but all were lost. The distance deviation of the round closest to the target is also more than 500 meters. The British cruiser's heavy cruiser dragged the long smoke and rushed across the sea, which did cause a lot of trouble for the German Navy's ranging. Reidel decided to change his formation and narrow the distance between the two sides. As the enemy wanted, he fought a medium- and short-range artillery battle.

Redell is confident in the German navy’s artillery. As long as it enters between 15,000 and 10,000 meters, the German navy can completely shoot accurately. The defense of that battleship is no longer a trouble. The German navy can One by one all of these British ships smashed into the sea.

The German fleet began to turn to the right. At an angle of fifteen degrees, the two horizontal lines began one after the other and converted into a column, led by two Scharnhorst-class battleships. Approaching the British fleet at a high speed of 28 knots. The two fleets lined up and approached quickly at an angle of ten degrees. The German fleet has a clear speed advantage, and it also surpasses the British army in rate of fire. The two sides exchanged shells as they approached. Often the German navy fired two salvos, and the British talent fired a round of artillery shells in return.

Soon the two sides were close to 15,000 yards, at which time the two fleets carried out several disguise in a row. Almost parallel to the British coast.

The loss control team on the Kent completed an almost impossible task. They finally extinguished the flames between the two decks. Before that, the fire once spread to the top of the cabin, and the main engine was only separated by a layer of fifteen millimeters. The steel plate, the successors of the British sailors, almost all the idle sailors joined the fire fighting team, and people continued to fall due to suffocation and burns. The aisle on the upper deck was covered with blisters and black smoked British sailors. The loyal Royal Navy sailors finally completed the task delivered by their superiors, as stated in their oath, and saved the king's battleship with their lives, although only temporarily.

The open fire has been extinguished, and the smoke in the cabin corridor has been exhausted. Now the black smoke is replaced by the scorching steam generated by the evaporated seawater. The white steam comes out from the collapsed hangar and various deck vents. The sea breeze drifted across the sea.

The vision of the British fleet became clearer, and the Germans could finally accurately target their opponents, and the artillery battle entered a fierce stage. The light cruisers on both sides have long been engaged in battle. The British and Germans used all their weapons to fight each other.

As the distance drew closer, the Germans had already broken their unbreakable record, and the harsh training of the Royal Navy was not a fancy. After more than a dozen rounds of fierce shooting, the Royal Navy finally played their own rhythm.

The Admiral Sher with the lieutenant general’s flag became the target of the concentrated attack of the British cruiser. This armored attack ship was almost covered by the water column. Even Redel felt that this warship must be more and more fierce. In the end, only 152 mm shells were hit. The shells penetrated from the soldier's kitchen on the back and exploded on the side of the oven, destroying two adjacent cabins, killing two cooks and four sailors. Next, the fragile armored ship was hit by four rounds of salvos. What surprised everyone was that no one shell could ever get closer to her.

Since then, the British light cruiser group has been continuously bombarded by two German heavy cruisers. Admiral Hipper and the eight turret divisions of Prince Eugen began to name one of the six British light cruisers.

Zeal was first shot, and Admiral Hipper’s a and b turrets fired her three rounds. In the last round, two 283mm shells directly hit the middle of the hull, and one shot from the front. The hull was penetrated between the chimneys, directly destroying the main flue system, and another shot blasted a 152 mm main gun in the middle of the hull.

Prince Eugen was like a possessed god, and she launched shelling at the same time towards three British light cruisers. Two of them were hit in succession. The Gloucester-class light cruisers Liverpool and Manchester were hit hard. The former was shot on the bridge, the steering room was blown up, and a five-meter square hole was blown out of the outer wall of the bridge to support The structure was destroyed, the upper deck collapsed, and most of the people in the bridge were killed on the spot. The latter was hit in the stern, destroying the rear main gun control tower and cutting off the tall mast.

The British light cruiser quickly shifted its firepower from the Scheer to two German heavy cruisers. Start a chaotic battle with two fierce opponents.

The Scharnhorst was hit by the Kent’s main gun, and the shells penetrated the upper side armor on one side, but failed to penetrate the second layer of the armor. Eventually, only a material warehouse was destroyed, causing a fire The fire was not small, the German damage control team arrived at the scene as soon as possible, and quickly put out the fire. This shell did not cause any serious damage to the Scharnhorst, but it made Redell's fighting spirit blaze, and the German navy marshal gritted his teeth. Determined to die with that Kent class.

The Lüzov never found a state, but fortunately, his opponent was in a worse state, and the Berek and the German armored ship exchanged shells back and forth slowly. Both sides have only two turrets, but the Germans have the advantage of caliber and quantity. They have two more barrels than the other, but they fired in several rounds. Both sides can only produce a pile of water columns beside each other, which makes the captains of both sides depressed and want to die.

At this time, the two teams of warships were gradually approaching the British coast, and the steep cliffs on the coast could be clearly seen in the eyeglasses of the lookout. The German fleet began to turn again. Relying on the faster than the British ship, four speeds, Redell made a 180-degree turn in front of the British fleet, and narrowed the distance between the two sides to 12,000 yards. Tovey did not dare to neglect this. He quickly led the fleet to the same direction of steering maneuver, to avoid the German navy fleet bypassing the side of his column, the Germans had a speed advantage, and the British fleet could only respond passively.

As the British fleet began to turn around, the distance between the two sides was once again extended to 13,000 yards. The two fleets maintained almost parallel routes and began to sail towards the French coast.

The fierce artillery battle continued, and the German and British navies had killed their eyes at this time. Many ships in the queues on both sides smoked thick smoke, but they remained stubbornly in the queue and fired artillery shells at the enemy. Just when everyone thought the artillery battle would last for a long time, an unexpected situation broke this embarrassing stalemate.

The near-missile shot by the Lüzov had caused insignificant damage to the Berwick. At that time, no one thought that this shell would actually be the fuse that triggered a series of tragedies, and no one thought it was this shell. , Which eventually led to the defeat of the British Royal Navy’s local fleet

The crack caused by the near-missile bombardment caused the contamination of Berwick’s freshwater tanks. The freshwater was supplied to the main engine boiler to produce steam. After the seawater entered the boiler, the water evaporated and became steam, and the steam containing impurities quickly appeared in the turbine blades. A layer of hard salt crust accumulated on it. As the salt crust accumulated thicker, the output of the main engine began to decline, and the pipeline began to block. When the chief engineer discovered this problem, the situation had reached an irreparable point. Both the boiler and the unit were damaged.

The speed of the Berwick suddenly dropped, and then she began to turn, trying to leave the battle line, but the Cumberland that followed was indulging in the shooting with Admiral Sher, there was no Found the accident ahead.

By the time the bridge crew found something wrong, the Berwick was close at hand, like a high wall blocking the bow of the Cumberland. Cumberland's helmsman only had time to turn the steering wheel twice, and a terrible collision occurred.

The heavy cruiser of more than 10,000 tons hit the sister ship's belly obliquely at a high speed of 24 knots. Carrying huge kinetic energy, the Cumberland pushed Berwick's huge hull to the side and forward for a distance of more than ten meters, and the huge waves spurred on the tall shipboard.

The bow of the Cumberland reached the position of the turret a, and it was inserted into the body of Berwick. Several sailors on the Berwick were thrown by the impact force and screamed and fell to the front of Cumberland. On the deck with a turret. The interior of Berwick’s hull was completely torn apart, and the stacked deck structures were all exposed. The scary thing is that the main engines of Cumberland and Berwick have not stopped turning, they are still struggling to push their hulls forward. Cumberland is like a huge can opener Rick's hull pryed open little by little.

The tear was getting bigger and bigger, and the seawater was frantically pouring into Berwick's hull. The heavy cruiser began to roll in the direction of the Cumberland, and the rear of the hull began to sink obviously. Captain Cumberland quickly ordered a full speed retreat, trying to pull his warship out of the other party's hull. But no matter how crazy the turbine is turning, the hull remains immobile. The tilting Berwick puts all the weight on the Campbell’s bow. The damaged structures on both sides are tangled into a mass, and the huge gravity and buoyancy interact. Hinged the two together.

The heavy cruiser bit his murderer before he died, and was about to drag it into hell. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel is better and faster!