As the night wore on, a vigilant formation of three German destroyers cruised at moderate speed in the waters north of Texel Island. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 The T-702, a torpedo boat destroyer of the 1930s, was built less than a year into service, and the standard displacement of this class of destroyers was 1,960 tons, almost the size of the early fourth-class cruisers. The Germans have always attached great importance to the quality of ships, and on the destroyers of the 1930s, advanced equipment such as mechanical semi-automatic loaders, light ship fire control systems, and trigger-type fire extinguishing devices are indispensable, and the German-made Lorentz-I shipboard pulse detector is still in the stage of small-batch trial production, coupled with a full set of weapon systems adopted on a merit-based basis, its tactical value has thrown the ordinary destroyers of the past several streets, and although the cost of a single ship built in batches is as high as 2.44 million Reichsmarks, In 1930, 1931, and 1932, the German Navy ordered 12, 18, and 20 ships respectively, and by the outbreak of the war, 15 ships were in active service, of which 4 were deployed in the Azores.

The two German destroyers that followed the lead ship were slightly smaller in size, but they had a lot of naval, anti-aircraft, and anti-submarine weapons, and their neat hull paint showed that they were in a good state of maintenance. Despite the emptiness of the sea, all three destroyers were flying battle flags, their guns were stripped of their guns, and their crews were in their gun positions.

"An anomalous object detected 10 nautical miles northeast, possibly an enemy ship!"

On the combat bridge of the destroyer T-702, the briefing of the officer on duty immediately made all those present nervous.

What should come will come after all, and there is no point in leaving it to chance. The commander, with a straight posture and a resolute expression, decisively ordered: "Turn right 2 compass points, increase the speed to 27 knots, keep the positions of each ship, and carry out reconnaissance to the north!" All of you are on alert! ”

Only three or four minutes later, the lookout post reported that the ship had been spotted in the northeast sea, but the Lorentz-I detector did not respond accordingly at this time.

At critical moments, traditional technical experience is often more reliable than newer instruments, and the commander orders the entire ship's guns to be reloaded, and searchlights to be on call.

Half a minute later, two bright beams of light suddenly shot out from the sea in front of the port side, and with a little adjustment, they quickly locked onto the T-702 at high speed.

On the bridge of the battleship, the commander of the German ship, who was always paying attention to the sea surface, did not hesitate to issue a combat command: "Aim at the enemy searchlight, lower the firing angle, and fire three shots!" ”

Within 40 seconds, all four twin naval guns completed three rapid fires with lightning speed, and the other two destroyers who remained in the alert formation reacted a little slower, but they also made their first shots before the enemy ships covered the T-702, and then, the light ships of the two sides at a distance of about 500 meters quickly calibrated the angle of fire and attacked each other with explosive heavy artillery fire.

The light ships of the two sides, which were also equipped with auxiliary ammunition equipment, had a comparable rate of fire and fire intensity of naval guns, and after the enemy ships took the initiative to turn off their searchlights, the German commander immediately made a decision and ordered the formation of three ships to make an emergency turn. After an instant, bursts of flames flashed on the sea in the distance, and medium-caliber shells whistled like raindrops, stirring up a large area of the sea as if it were boiling......

Successfully leaving the enemy artillery behind him, the German ship commander calmly ordered: "Report to the command that the 2nd Alert Detachment has encountered 4 enemy destroyers and 2-3 cruisers at position 33-91, and so far there has been no damage, and Lorenz-I has detected more than 5 large warships at position 32-91." ”

There were many enemy destroyers, and there were an unknown number of cruisers behind them, so it was never wise to go head-to-head with them, but there was no need to retreat. After leading the formation to the south for nearly ten nautical miles, the commander of the German ships ordered two successive turns, sailed east and then north, made a considerable circle at sea, and again approached the 33-91 area where the enemy ships were infested, detected the position of the enemy destroyers and quietly approached, and when they were about 300 meters away from the enemy, they suddenly fired cold arrows - the three destroyers fired 18 533-mm torpedoes in one go, and then resolutely turned around and retreated.

A short distance away, a violent explosion was heard in the sea behind, and a moment later another violent explosion was accompanied by a large fireball, which meant that at least one enemy ship had been severely damaged by a torpedo.

The German inspectors later learned that this was the first battleship to be sunk by a ship during the Battle of the Azores in 1933, and its name was "Richmond", which was a 1,100-ton American Campbell-class destroyer.

Receiving an early warning from their own alert ships, the German shore defense forces on the island of Texel were prepared for the battle in advance, which allowed them to avoid unnecessary casualties, but not enough to change the trajectory of the battle. At 11:23 p.m. that night, the capital of the German No. 7 artillery group "Lübeck Fortress" at the northern tip of Texel Island was bombarded by enemy artillery. The heavy shells fired from more than 20,000 meters away had no precision at all, but the destructive power of these big guys falling at high speed was extremely great, the fields on the shore were smashed out of one deep crater after another, the night sky was dyed red by orange firelight, and the billowing black smoke rose into the sky, and people could feel the terrible power of this shelling in Portera Sangra, more than ten kilometers away.

The German army deployed 45 times the diameter of the 13 points of 5 inches of artillery and 50 times the diameter of the 12 inch guns in the "Lübeck Fortress", the maximum range of which is more than 20 kilometers, these large-caliber guns placed in the solid coastal defense fortifications, theoretically enough to resist the attack of the United States and British capital ships, but this artillery battle that took place at night was almost over-the-horizon mode, the German troops on the shore could not use optical equipment to determine the accurate position of the enemy warships, and could not get the effective support of the navy and air force, and the powerful fortress guns almost became ornaments.

After half an hour of shelling, the U.S. and British fleets moved eastward to the German No. 8 battery group "Dartstam Fortress" near the Lyles headland, and luckily hit the ammunition depot of one of the forts, causing a violent explosion comparable to an earthquake.

Using the flames and black smoke produced by the explosion as the reference coordinates, the U.S. and British fleets then launched long-range artillery shelling of the German air base east of Texel Island, destroying two runways and a large number of hangar facilities located there. During this period, the Germans dispatched fighters many times, but whether it was searching for firing targets for the fortress artillery or directly bombing American and British ships, they all returned in vain due to the poor night vision environment; German light ships and submarines cruising in the nearby waters ventured to carry out combat reconnaissance, but the United States and Britain came prepared, and they set up a tight cordon with groups of cruisers and destroyers, which frustrated the efforts of German ships again and again......

Bad news came one after another, and the German commander-in-chief of the Azores, Army Admiral von Ekward, and his subordinates became more and more heavy, and they knew very well that if the American and British fleets were allowed to rage like this, the defense system of Texel Island would be torn apart before dawn, which would be very detrimental to the subsequent operations.

At the moment of crisis, heroes shine on the scene. Wilhelm August von Oldenburg personally led the two main ships of the German Atlantic Detachment back to the Texel Sea, and this elite naval force did not directly kill the enemy's artillery fleet, but suddenly appeared about 50 nautical miles north of Texel Island. In less than three minutes, the 1,200-ton Belmont-class destroyer was engulfed in flames and smoke, and it only had time to send a half-telegram before it lost control - "The Burville is under heavy artillery fire at the alert position......

Twenty minutes later, two light cruisers and four destroyers of the American and British fleets hurried to the sea where the "Burville" was attacked. Despite being on full alert, this combat support detachment fell into the death trap of a strong enemy, and the deep sea surface of the night was suddenly illuminated by searchlights and flares, and the dense and accurate artillery fire covered one American and British ship after another in the blink of an eye. In a short battle, the German fleet destroyed one British light cruiser and severely damaged two destroyers, and two Tirpitz-class battlecruisers also showed the hideous face of the steel behemoth in this battle. Seeing that the enemy ships began to flee, the German fleet did not pursue exhaustively, but quickly turned around and headed north. The two American and British ships, which had only suffered minor injuries, turned back and tried to follow the German fleet, but were ambushed by the Germans with a sharp backhand, the American light cruiser "Seren" was directly torpedoed and sunk, and the British destroyer "Beagle" was smashed by the fierce artillery fire of the two German light cruisers......

The impact of the German fleet's brilliant performance on the outcome of the battle was immediate, and almost at the same time as the sinking of the "Seren", the American and British fleets ended their continuous shelling of the airfields east of Texel Island. About half an hour later, the German No. 1 fortress group "Königsberg Fortress" in the east of Texel Island was bombarded by enemy naval guns, but the intensity of the artillery fire was significantly less than before. At the same time, American and British carrier-based aircraft and light ships launched a dragnet search in the waters infested by the German fleet. At about 2 o'clock in the morning, the British destroyer "Huamei" once again discovered the traces of the German fleet, it deftly avoided the German attack, guided its own carrier-based aircraft to find the target and bombed, but the carrier-based aircraft also failed to achieve any results at night, the high-speed German fleet once again escaped into the vast night, until 4:20 in the morning, they encountered the American and British ships on the sea again, this time, the opponent was much stronger than the previous small players - the leader was the American heavy cruiser "Penshacola", It was built in the mid-to-late 20s, in the United States Navy is the strength of the second only battleship and battle cruisers to the quasi-capital ship, the performance of the best heavy cruisers in Germany, but in the face of the Tirpitz Count class such a "battle patrol killer", "Penshacola" did not have a chance to perform, a close artillery battle, it was beaten by the German super battle patrol smoke, embarrassed to withdraw from the battle.

(End of chapter)