On the night of May 22, Chen Dao frowned and walked around the operational command room of the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen.

"Careless, careless, damned, underestimating the enemy is really the biggest original sin of a commander······ Hasn't the Tirpitz damage management report been sent yet? ”

When Major Bach saw Chen Dao asking himself, he hurriedly looked into the corridor outside the door, and happened to see Major Lorenz hurrying over with a telegram.

"The battle damage report is here, General." Major Bach took the telegram and handed it to Chen Dao.

"The No. 1 boiler compartment was hit and stopped, the seaplane catapult was hit, and according to the calculations of the damage management department, the enemy's shore defense guns were at least 280 mm caliber, that is, about the same caliber as the main guns of the Scharnhorst-class battle cruisers."

After reading the telegram, Chen Dao walked to his desk, looked down at the photos on the table, and soon found several aerial photos with similar content.

The first photo shows an aerial photograph of the southwestern corner of the Sevastopol fortress at Cape "Kersen".

Chen Dao faintly found two button-shaped dots on the cliff south of Cape Kelsen.

The content of the second photo is also Cape Kelsen, but the altitude of the aerial plane flight is significantly reduced, and the content is clearer.

Originally, the position of the two button-shaped dots showed two "frying pans" that were upside down on the ground.

Unlike the usual pans, both "pans" have two handles, and at the end of the handle, which is pointed to the southern sea, the ground is filled with a large amount of smoke, which at first glance looks like a large marshmallow.

"This is the Maxim Gorky-2 shore defense gun, two twin large-caliber guns, which add up to four guns of at least 280 mm caliber, and we underestimate its power. Fortunately, it was discovered early and did not cause us fatal damage, otherwise it would have caused fatal damage to our next operation. ”

After the six-day artillery bombardment of the fortress of Sevastopol began, Chen Dao led a fleet to join the bombardment, with the primary target being Cape Kersen.

Chen Dao thought that under the power of large-caliber naval guns, the destruction of the "Maxim Gorky-2" battery on Cape Kerson was nothing more than an easy matter, but after a round of firefighting, the battleship Tirpitz was hit.

The black smoke from the injured battleship Tirpitz shot into the sky, which immediately attracted Chen Dao's attention, and he realized that he did not know the caliber and power of the opposite shore defense battery.

After coming to his senses, Chen Dao immediately ordered the fleet to release smoke and retreat, widening the distance from the enemy's shore defense guns.

In Chen Dao's eyes, the enemy in the fortress opposite was already a group of condemned prisoners, and in this group of dead people, even if a destroyer was sunk, it was a great waste of naval strength.

Staring at the two "pan" type twin batteries in the photo for a few seconds, Chen Dao touched the stubble on his chin and said: "The small battleship passed over, and it couldn't withstand a salvo from it, and the firepower was too weak to destroy it. Large warships used to risk being damaged, and the gains outweighed the losses. ”

"Send in aviation and use Stuka to carry armor-piercing shells for precision strikes." Major Bach suggested.

"Stuka can solve the problem, but the bombers on our aircraft carriers have been changed to F-190s, and they do not have the ability to dive and bomb at large angles, and the hit rate is very low when bombing such two small targets."

Major Lorenz said: "The 2nd Division of Naval Aviation can send Stuka to attack." ”

Chen Dao glanced at Major Lorenz and said, "The battleships in the fleet were damaged by the enemy, and it is better for the fleet itself to retaliate. I remember one thing, I remember when we were in St. Petersburg, we once poached two elite Stuka pilots from the Air Force to the Navy, and one of them was awarded the Knight's Iron Cross, his name was Hans······ Do you remember what his last name was? ”

Major Lorenz rubbed his temple with the index finger of his right hand, rolled his eyes and recalled for a few seconds before saying, "It seems to be surnamed Rudel, Hans Rudel." ”

Chen Dao said: "Immediately go and investigate which aircraft carrier this Mr. Hans Rudel is on." Let's investigate again which of the pilots on the aircraft carriers in the fleet flew over Stuka. Also, let Colonel Franz prepare the speedboat, and we went to the aircraft carrier Seckert. ”

In the early morning of May 23, the fourth day of the shelling of the Sevastopol fortress, fifteen F-190F1 dive bombers of the 1st Dive Bomber Squadron took off one after another on the aircraft carrier Seckert, under the leadership of Captain Hans Rudel, the squadron leader, and then formed a group and flew north, under the guidance of the No. 3 airfield navigation tower of the 2nd Air Division of the Naval Air Force.

After the transition, Captain Rudel rested for a while, and then he and his five subordinates got into the Stuka dive bomber that had been prepared on the airfield, and then flew into the sky, separated into two three-plane formations, and repeatedly circled, dived, and pulled up in the sky.

For the entire morning, six carefully selected pilots trained hard to get back to flying the JU-87 Stuka dive bomber.

Near 11 o'clock, the first round of training was completed, and the six planes landed one after another and slowly rowed into the hangar along the runway.

Captain Rudel had just taken five of his men to the airport cafeteria, where eight JU-90 transport planes from the German mainland had landed.

After the plane came to a standstill, the rear door of the fuselage was slowly lowered, and the ground crew at the airport walked into the cargo hold and unloaded one oversized aerial bomb numbered PC-1800 from inside.

PC means concrete armor-piercing projectile, and 1800 represents the bomb weight 1800 kg.

There are three types of concrete armor-piercing shells equipped by the Luftwaffe, namely PC-1000, PC-1400 and PC-1800, in order to ensure that the "Maxim Gorky No. 2" battery can be killed with one shot, Chen Dao did not hesitate to choose the most ferocious PC-1800.

The ground crew wheeled the bombs out of the engine room on carts and delivered them to the hangar where Captain Rudel and others had parked the Stuka dive bomber, and then began to repaint the bombs and paint them sky blue camouflage.

Ordinary aerial bombs are gray, and concrete armor-piercing shells are usually delivered single-shot because of their heavy weight, large volume, and high air resistance.

In order to avoid the bomb being detected and hit by enemy anti-aircraft artillery units during the fall, concrete armor-piercing shells enjoyed special treatment and were painted in a sky blue camouflage color.

While the ground crew was working overtime, Captain Rudell was in the cafeteria battling a grilled medium-rare steak.

After gobbling up the steak in his mouth, Captain Rudel said, "Gentlemen, this is a very difficult task. According to the ratio of the aerial height and the diameter of the two 'pans' on the aerial photo, the diameter of our target is about 10 meters, and if we want to hit directly by diving and dropping the bomb, the difficulty is not ordinary, and the time has come to test our luck. ”

His deputy, Lieutenant Perry, said: "General Rosen has said that the Führer is with us, and honor is with us. I think luck should be on our side. For the sake of half the Scharnhorst, we must succeed. ”

Captain Rudel nodded in agreement: "Yes, in order to sink that half of the Scharnhorst, we have to practice hard, we only have one afternoon to prepare, after all, luck is based on strength." ”

Before leaving, Captain Rudell was personally summoned by Chen Dao.

During the summons, Chen Dao explained the difficulties of the mission to Rudell and others, and solemnly promised the fifteen pilots.

The opposite "Maxim Gorky-2" battery had four huge guns of at least 280 mm caliber, which were equivalent to the main gun fire of half of the battle cruiser Scharnhorst.

If your squadron manages to take out these four cannons, I'll give you a record of how much you sank half of the Scharnhorst.

The full load displacement of a battle cruiser Scharnhorst is more than 37,000 tons, and I will calculate for you according to 38,000 tons, half of the displacement is 19,000 tons, which is a very considerable number, and you must make good use of this military achievement.

Hearing Captain Rudel mention the "half of the Scharnhorst", the five Stuka pilots were silent and invariably quickened the pace of eating.

After lunch, the six men rested for about half an hour before returning to the blue sky and training hard to sink "half of the battle cruiser Scharnhorst".

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PS: "Scharnhorst": "Who did I TM recruit to provoke whom?" Why are you sinking me? ”