Republic of China game

Page 519

Lieutenant General Lütjens, commander of the main force of the High Seas Fleet, has made a decision!Since the Brits are going all out, of course the High Seas Fleet will stay with them to the end!Uh, in fact, Lieutenant General Lütjens didn't think about turning around and fleeing, but he found that his current position was not very suitable for escaping, because his fleet was between the British mainland fleet and the British mainland.If you turn around and run in a horizontal formation like the British guys... then you will inevitably approach the British mainland, and the opponent's bombers will be dispatched soon!If you bypass the formation of the home fleet in a column, you will probably be bitten by the Hood, the Richelieu, the Jean Bart, and a dozen British heavy cruisers.Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, Lütjens is still determined to make good use of the 20 minutes.

After a few tens of seconds of hesitation, the main guns of the 11 battleships and armored ships of the High Seas Fleet pointed their guns at the British battlecruiser Hood rushing to the forefront. 84 large-caliber main guns roared almost simultaneously, while the 17 battleships and battlecruisers of the British mainland fleet, including 4 Sovereign-class, 4 Queen Elizabeth-class, 4 Iron Duke-class, 2 Nelson-class , 1 Hood-class ship, and 2 Richelieu-class ships temporarily under the command of the British Home Fleet, can use 90 bow main guns of 13.5 inches or more to meet the enemy at the same time!Its firepower is much stronger than that of the German High Seas Fleet, but because all the ships are charging at full speed (otherwise, the German High Seas Fleet can definitely circle the British fleet with its high speed), the formation has long been chaotic, because it is no longer possible to uniformly mobilize The main gun firepower of each ship, we can only let them fight on their own!

In this case, the three ships with the fastest speed, the Hood, the Richelieu, and the Jean Bart, which rushed to the forefront, were naturally the victims of attracting the firepower of the German High Seas Fleet... Of course, they were also the victims of this assault. The key to success!If these three ships can successfully disrupt the formation of the German High Seas Fleet, it will buy precious time for the next 14 British battleships. Once these battleships are allowed to rush into the formation of the High Seas Fleet, today's battle situation will inevitably change. The scrimmage expected of Admiral Forbes!The British Home Fleet, superior in numbers, training and firepower, will almost certainly win!

Perhaps the bad luck of the battlecruiser Hood finally broke out in history. The 84 heavy guns of the German fleet fired only two rounds of salvo, and a huge fireball rose from the Hood!This time it was the German battleship Tirpitz that made the contribution. A 1mm "high initial velocity light armor-piercing projectile" fired from its No. 380 turret hit the front of the B turret of the Hood's bow, where the entire Hood armor At its strongest, it has 15 inches of Harvey carburized armor steel.However, such a defense is not enough to withstand the armor-piercing projectiles fired by Tirpitz's SKC15000 naval gun (which is slightly different from the main gun equipped with the Zhenyuan class built in China) at a distance of 34 meters. An 800-kilogram armor-piercing projectile forcibly drilled into the front of the 15-inch turret, and then exploded inside the turret, lifting the entire turret weighing hundreds of tons!Fortunately, the big explosion of the B turret did not affect the ammunition bay under the turret, and the Hood was able to temporarily escape.

However, this shot was obviously only the beginning of the Hood's bad luck. As the impact point of the shell was captured by the fire control and rangefinders of the High Seas Fleet, the 84 heavy guns of the German High Seas Fleet would soon rain down. The shells were thrown on the Hood's not-so-strong hull.

At 8:03 and 8:05, the Hood was shot twice in succession!Especially at 8:05, a 380mm armor-piercing projectile fired by the battleship Bismarck landed on the deck at the rear of the mainmast of the Hood, and the thin deck armor was penetrated like a piece of paper. The armor-piercing projectile got into the aft engine room of the Hood's stern and exploded there. The fragments produced by the explosion easily penetrated the thin armor between the aft engine room and the secondary battery firing bay, detonating nearly 800 bombs stored there. tons of propellant, and then the explosion caused a chain reaction. The "X" and "Y" turrets adjacent to the compartment launched the propellant compartment, detonating nearly 20 tons of propellant for the 95-inch main gun in the two compartments, and the result was of course destruction. sexual.Following this series of violent explosions, the entire Hood was engulfed in smoke and flames almost instantly.Hood's "X" main turret was thrown tens of meters into the air by the violent explosion, and the smoke from the explosion went straight up into the sky, and a large number of hull fragments were thrown into the air and scattered in the surrounding sea , some even landed on the decks of the Richelieu and Jean Bart.After the explosion, the Hood's hull broke into two pieces at the rear mainmast, and the rear was blown into a pile of wreckage, separated from the front and overturned and sank.The bow sank into the sea within minutes of the explosion!All but 15 of the 1421 officers and soldiers on the Hood died with the ship, including Lieutenant General Holland, who had led the fleet to lure the enemy.

After the Hood was finished, the next target of the German High Seas Fleet was the just completed French battleship Richelieu.This battleship and its sister ship Jean Bart are super battleships specially designed and developed by France for the Zhenyuan class.Compared with the thin-skinned and bulky Hood battlecruiser, the Richelieu-class battleship is almost a floating fortress covered with thick steel armor.

The turret layout of this class of battleship is very strange. The two quadruple main guns are all arranged on the front deck, and there is no main gun on the rear deck.The two main turrets are all arranged in front of the bridge, which is conducive to reducing the protective area of ​​heavy armor and saving weight to strengthen the defense capabilities of key areas. Therefore, the Richelieu with a standard displacement of 2 tons is almost the most advanced defense in the world. The best battleship ever!Its waterline armor thickness is 38500mm, and has an inclination angle of 328 degrees, and there is an 15mm caving liner behind the armor strake.The thickness of the front armor of the turret is 18mm, the thickness of the side is 430mm, the thickness of the seat ring armor is 270mm, and the thickness of the armor of the conning tower is 405mm.In addition, the Richelieu class design also fully considered the threat from the air.Therefore, in addition to installing a large number of anti-aircraft guns, it also strengthened the horizontal armor. There are two layers of deck armor on the ship. The first layer is 340-150mm thick, and the second layer is 170-40mm thick. 100mm, can effectively defend against threats from the air.

Now, such two French battleships with eight main guns all forward and with unimaginable solid armor have become a thorn in the eyes of all gunners of the German High Seas Fleet. Under the command of Lütjens, the 84 heavy guns once again aimed their muzzles at the Richelieu, which was rushing at a high speed of 30 knots.In less than 2 minutes, the French battleship suffered three rounds of 3mm and two rounds of 380mm armor-piercing rounds, but this steel monster did not seem to suffer much damage, but the bow sank slightly, and the speed also slowed down. .

And Admiral Francois Darlan, who commanded the two French battleships, was obviously also an extremely good admiral. He ordered from the beginning to pour all the firepower of the 16 main guns of the two Richelieu-class battleships on On the nearest battleship Mackensen.

At 8:08, the two French battleships finally caused the German High Seas Fleet to suffer the biggest loss since the beginning of the naval battle. Two 2mm shells hit the Mackensen, one destroyed the A turret on the bow of the ship, and one The attack penetrated the waterline armor of the bow, and hundreds of tons of sea water poured in immediately. Although this level of water ingress would not overturn the Mackensen, it slowed down the speed of the ship, and the ship The sinking of the bow will also affect the accuracy of the bow main gun.Therefore, it can be regarded as moderately injured.

And just 1 minute later, 81 German heavy guns fired back. The torrential rain of 380mm and 280mm shells swept across the hull of the Richelieu, and one of the 1mm armor-piercing shells hit the Richelieu A head-on. The frontal armor plate of the turret, with a distance of less than 380 meters, allowed the power of the German "high initial velocity light armor-piercing projectile" to be fully exerted, and the armor steel with a thickness of 12000mm could not stop the penetration of the projectile... the projectile exploded The power blasted the entire turret into pieces, and the huge shock wave damaged the electro-hydraulic pump of the B turret, making the remaining four 430mm cannons of the Richelieu temporarily unusable.As a result, the French battleship, which the British side placed high hopes on, had to fly the banner of "the ship is severely damaged and withdraws from the battle", and withdrew from the battlefield in despair.

Just when the desperate assault of the British home fleet seemed to be about to suffer a disastrous defeat, the two most powerful battleships of the British Navy, HMS Nelson and HMS Rodney, finally rushed to a distance of 15000 meters from the formation of the German High Seas Fleet.Their 18 16-inch main guns began to bombard the already damaged battleship Mackensen.After only three rounds of salvo, the battleship Mackensen was shot again and caught fire. A giant 16-inch caliber shell pierced the waterline armor of its stern, and there was a big explosion in the power cabin!This time, the super battleship designed by Germany and made in China suffered fatal damage. Although the excellent waterproof compartment could ensure that the battleship continued to float, it lost all power and became a huge floating target.

The bitter battle of the German High Seas Fleet has finally begun!

Chapter 0806 Admiral's decision (fifteen) warships for aircraft carriers!

July 1938, 11, 20:8 am.

There was a busy scene on the deck of the Friedrich der Grosse. Fw-190C (naval type) and Ju-87C (navy type) with folded wings were slowly lifted onto the deck by the elevator.The aircraft carrier's ground crew immediately pushed the aircraft to the take-off line on the carrier's deck and parked them.

Other ground soldiers used trolleys to transport heavy bombs weighing 1000 kilograms to the belly of the Ju-87C dive bomber, and then lifted them with a hydraulic oil pump and installed them on the bomb pylon under the belly.Since the current torpedo bomber projects in China and Germany are somewhat backward, there are no suitable models available, so the plan to assign torpedo bomber squadrons to aircraft carriers was simply cancelled, and dive bombers were simply used as the main combat force.

However, the power of the Ju-87C in this time and space is extraordinary. Under the direct attention of Hitler, the super fat marshal of the Luftwaffe did not dare to neglect, so he had to install the latest Ju-1400J engine with 211 horsepower as a priority. On the Ju-87C, this carrier-based aircraft has a range of up to 1000 kilometers even when it is loaded with a bomb weighing 800 kilograms!

At this time, the thick fog floating on the surface of the North Sea finally dissipated, and a ray of red clouds in the sky also penetrated the clouds and sprinkled onto the rarely calm sea.It seems that today is a good weather for the air force to dispatch!

Looking at the busy scene on the deck and the ray of red clouds in the sky, Admiral Raeder, commander-in-chief of the German High Seas Fleet in the island of Friedrich der Grosse, breathed a sigh of relief.As long as the plane can be dispatched, the winner of the sea battle 70 nautical miles away must be the German High Seas Fleet! The shame of Jutland's defeat 22 years ago can finally be washed away with the blood of the British.

"Sir, a telegram from the Bismarck." The voice of the communications officer sounded.

"What's the matter?" Raedel asked immediately after finding out that the other party's mood was a little abnormal.

"Sir, Lieutenant General Lütjens reports that the formation of the battleship squadron is in disarray. At present, each ship can only fight on its own. In addition..." the staff officer took a deep breath, gritted his teeth and said: "The battleship Mackensen was lost after being severely damaged. Power, Lieutenant General Lütjens has ordered to abandon the ship, the armored ship Deutschland was hit in the ammunition depot... the explosion sank! The Chinese battleship Ningyuan was severely damaged and lost its combat effectiveness, and has withdrawn from the battle. The heavy cruiser Admiral Hippe is in the melee It was hit by a torpedo and is currently being repaired."

"Damn it! I still succeeded to these British guys!" Raeder cursed, and then asked: "How is the situation of the British guys? Did it say it in General Lütjens' telegram?"

The staff officer took out another telegram and handed it to Raeder, "Sir, this is the result report received at the same time. They sank two more Iron Duke-class battleships and severely damaged the Jean Bart, Sovereign, and Queen Elizabeth. , of which the Jean Bart has withdrawn from the battle. In addition, two Kent-class ships were sunk..."

Raeder counted with his fingers in his heart. Of the 19 British and French battleships and battlecruisers that participated in the battle, Hood, Tiger and two Iron Dukes have been sunk; , Jean Bart withdrew from the battle.In other words, there are still 12 battleships still fighting!On the other hand, the Mackensen was lost, and the Ningyuan withdrew... Only 4 Zhenyuan-class battleships are still insisting, and the British now have almost a 3 to 1 advantage!And they also have two powerful Nelson-class ships.Such a battlefield situation, if placed in the First World War, should be a disastrous defeat, right?

But now... a sneer appeared on the corner of Raeder's mouth, and he glanced at the neatly arranged planes on the deck.Loudly said: "Okay! Now the work of the battleship has been completed, and the aircraft carrier is on the scene! Order the air teams to attack, and the target is within 70 to 100 nautical miles to the northwest!"

As soon as Raider finished speaking, the chief of staff next to him asked, "Admiral, what about the main force of the High Seas Fleet? Can you let them disperse and break through?"

"No! They must stick to the battlefield, because the British planes will definitely come. Once they disperse, we and the air force will have no way to provide them with air cover. That will be even more dangerous!" Raeder said lightly: " The plane will definitely arrive within 30 minutes, 30 minutes, can you always hold on?"

……

"Full starboard, full speed ahead, throw off the Queen (Queen Elizabeth) and focus on the opposing Nelson."

On the sea, the two battleships Zhenyuan and Dingyuan formed a team, rampaging on the sea, and next to them was the battleship Queen Elizabeth with a standard displacement of 27500 tons.The battleship has now been beaten to death, three of the four turrets have disappeared, and the remaining one seems to have something wrong and is no longer firing.The right side of the stern was also opened with a big hole by a 380mm shell, and tons of sea water was rushing in.If the two Chinese battleships can give it a few more blows, it should be able to completely reimburse this British battleship!

But Yu Yanshou decided to leave the "Queen" aside for the time being, and deal with the two Nelson-class ships not far away first.Before the appearance of the "Zhenyuan" class, these two giant ships were among the "Seven Great Ships in the World in the Naval Holiday Era". They are as famous as the Nagato class of Japan and the Colorado class of the United States.The 18 16-inch naval guns possessed by these two battleships are currently the largest naval guns in the world. Although they may not be the most powerful, they have caused a lot of trouble for the German High Seas Fleet on today's battlefield.And the Nelson among them is flying the flag of Admiral Forbes, the commander of the British Home Fleet!If this battleship can be knocked down, it should play a decisive role in the current battle situation, right?

"boom……"

Probably discovered that two Zhenyuan-class ships were approaching it, and the two Nelson-class ships immediately stopped bombarding the Bismarck in the distance, and turned their muzzles to bombard the Zhenyuan.However, the accuracy of the 16-inch main gun used by this battleship is a bit problematic.At a distance of less than 10000 meters, it was still several hundred meters off.

While the two Nelson-class ships were firing, the main guns of Zhenyuan and Dingyuan also aimed their muzzles at the flagship of the British mainland fleet, HMS Nelson, firing several salvos at the fastest speed.

At the same time, on the other side of the Zhen and Ding ships, the British battleships Barham and Warrior also aimed their guns at Zhenyuan!Explosions and thick smoke appeared on ships of both countries at the same time.A 15-inch armor-piercing projectile fired by the Barham hit the No. 3 turret of the Zhenyuan. The armor on the back of the turret could not stop the 15-inch projectile at all. After a loud noise, it disappeared completely. Fortunately, it was under the turret The ammunition bay was not affected.

The stern of the USS Nelson was hit. A 380mm armor-piercing projectile pierced through the 10-inch stern armor. There was a big explosion inside the stern, and an oil tank in the stern was also ignited. Thick black smoke Take off from the stern of the Nelson and head straight into the sky.

"Admiral! Damage control report, the rear fuel tank was shot and caught fire. The fire is very fierce, and damage control is trying to put it out!" In the command tower of the USS Nelson, the communications staff was reporting the loss to the fleet commander, Admiral Forbes.At this time, another telegram was handed into his hand, and he read it and immediately shouted: "The aircraft carrier Brave reports that the weather has improved, and the carrier fleet is taking off!"

Hearing that his own plane was about to come to help, Admiral Forbes' face turned gloomy, as if it was some bad news.The admiral ordered: "Let the light cruiser send a seaplane to search eastward, paying special attention to the range within 150 nautical miles."

Just after Forbes gave the order, there was another loud bang, as if the entire battleship had been hit by Thor's sledgehammer, and the violent vibration shocked everyone.Forbes raised his eyes and looked out. The situation outside made the commander of the local large fleet take a breath.It turned out that a 380mm shell hit the front of the B turret of the battleship Nelson just now. Since the distance between the two sides had been shortened to less than 10000 meters, the 16-inch frontal armor could not stop the 800 kg armor-piercing shell. A center blossomed in the turret, and now the B turret has disappeared, leaving only the bare base smoking green smoke.This time, the Nelson was hit hard again!

"Damn!" Forbes cursed angrily, these old battleships of the British Empire are really too unreliable!The accuracy of the cannons of the Nelson class is too poor, the King class and Queen class are too old, and the power of the main guns is even less powerful. The Iron Duke can only deal with the Polish Legion class... and those battlecruisers are a tragedy!In today's naval battle, he obviously has the upper hand, but he has been unable to annihilate the battleship troops of the Germans for a long time, and an air battle is about to begin!And the fighter jets and bombers of the British Navy are even more unreliable.

Just when the two fleets on the North Sea were gradually falling into a bitter battle, about 200 Fw-190C fighter jets and Ju-87C dive bombers appeared in the eastern sky.Seeing these neatly lined up German planes approaching at high speed, the muscles on Admiral Forbes' face trembled a few times.

The German plane arrived first!Moreover, the sea is now a scene of melee, and there is no way to form an air defense formation...

Raeder's first wave of air strikes was an all-out attack, dispatching a total of 200 aircraft, including 190 Fw-48C carrier-based fighters and 87 Ju-152C dive bombers.

At 11:20 am on November 8th, 45 minutes after the first carrier-based aircraft of the German High Seas Fleet aircraft carrier took off, 40 German aircraft completed a 200-kilometer voyage and flew to the two fleets that were fighting fiercely. The sky is up.Seeing the German planes covering the sky, all the Chinese and German sailors on the battlefield couldn't help cheering, but the morale of the officers and soldiers of the British home fleet fell to the bottom.

……

"Admiral, the Germans have ambushed an aircraft carrier formation to the east." Lieutenant General Cunningham approached Forbes at this time.

"I know."

The planes of the Germans flew over their heads, and they are circling now, probably contacting the German High Seas Fleet below to determine who should drop the bombs on their heads (the battlefield is a bit chaotic)!And these planes were coming from the east, and of course Admiral Forbes now knew that the German aircraft carrier was in that direction.

"Admiral, we also have an aircraft carrier formation, and their planes are on the way now." Cunningham looked up at the Ju-87C dive bombers that were forming a bombing formation in threes and threes in the air, and said: "Can we The planes from our planes will go around from our north, and then attack the German aircraft carrier! As long as the German aircraft carrier can be killed, the loss of more battleships is worth it."

"what?"

"Admiral, think about it." Lieutenant General Cunningham pointed to the German (Chinese) battleship that was also smoking in the distance and said, "They have already lost two battleships, and the remaining four are also of varying degrees. Damaged, two of them seem to be seriously injured. It is estimated that the battleships of the German High Seas Fleet will not be able to recover their strength in less than a year. And in the next year, the most powerful combat power of the German High Seas Fleet will be the 5 As long as we destroy it, Germany will not be able to seize the sea control of the North Sea, because even if all our battleships are destroyed here, there are still Renown, Repulse, Malaya and Royal Oak available, and France still has five ships Battleships. In addition, we have 6 large motherships and 4 light motherships, and the number of heavy cruisers, light cruisers and destroyers far exceeds that of Germany, which is enough to suppress the German navy."

"But isn't the price we paid too high? The battleships here are all..."

"As long as the goal can be achieved, no matter how high the price is, we can only bear it." Cunningham nodded to the hesitant Forbes, and strengthened his tone, saying: "If we can severely damage the German High Seas Fleet, then the next stage of the empire's battlefield should be It is the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, where there are not many battleships to play, and only the aircraft carrier is the real master of the sea. And after we have wiped out the German aircraft carrier, we can freely transfer the aircraft carrier in our hands to Australia or India!"

"And now the Americans have just suffered a disastrous defeat in Hawaii and lost four aircraft carriers. This is when the reinforcements of the British aircraft carrier are most needed. For the aircraft carrier in our hands, the Americans may be able to pay a large price."

Listening to Cunningham's analysis, Forbes secretly admired him in his heart. This vice-admiral chief of staff of the local fleet is probably another outstanding naval commander in the British Empire, right?In a few words, he analyzed the current battle situation clearly, and proposed the most beneficial method for the empire.

It's just...is it really necessary to sacrifice the precious battleships of the home fleet to attract the firepower of German aircraft?

Cunningham added: "Admiral, in order to ensure the destruction of the German aircraft carrier, I suggest that General Hugh Dowding send at least 15 squadrons of Hurricane fighters and 10 squadrons of Blenheim bombers to the waters where the German aircraft carriers are located. , In addition, 8 squadrons of the Royal Navy's Brest 'Beaufort' torpedo bombers also went to attack the German aircraft carrier!"