In the eyes of ordinary people, King Joachim I of Ireland was a legendary figure until the age of 26, and from the age of 26 to 30 he was the great monarch of the Irish, and after the age of 30, he spent most of his time with his family and enjoying life, neither in charge of military and political affairs, nor in international relations. In fact, he just reined in his edge and chose a way that was more in line with www.biquge.info the trend of historical development to deal with the changes in the world. Internally, he pays special attention to the development of science and technology education and the livelihood of the poor, and guides social concepts by leading by example, so as to consolidate his status and image in the eyes of the Irish people. Externally, he paid close attention to the changes in political concepts and popular trends of thought in various countries, and assigned special personnel to collect and classify publications and patents in the field of technology, so that they could become an objective basis for his judgment on the strategic and tactical level. Thus, while some high-ranking German figures were still worried about how successful he could be, the Slovanese were gradually completing the last pieces of the puzzle of the grand battle layout as the "Frederick-Caesar" convoy lured prey.

The success of a combat plan depends not only on whether its plan is reasonable and, more importantly, on whether it has grasped the enemy's weak links, and this must be based on an understanding of the enemy's situation. Since the coup d'état in Portugal and the forcible seizure of the Azores by the German army, the estrangement between the Allied bloc and the US-British alliance has deepened, and the normal channels of military exchanges have been basically cut off. At the beginning of the outbreak of the Battle of the Azores, the US and British forces failed to successfully seize air supremacy and almost lost the overall situation, that is, they did not have a sufficient understanding of the air defense system of the Allied forces on the island of Texel, and after the Battle of Flores, many German naval generals were still entangled in the question of whether US and British ships should generally install radar equipment, and this was also a manifestation of their insufficient grasp of the enemy's situation.

Compared with the German naval commanders, who regarded themselves very highly, Natsuki's advantage lies in his understanding of objective laws, and any military technology never appears out of thin air, it must be built on the dual basis of scientific research and industrial technology. Based on long-term observation of academic research and technology applications in the United States and the United Kingdom, Natsuki deduced that the adversary currently has the ability and conditions to use radar equipment in a large area, but the radar detection accuracy should not exceed the latest equipment of the Irish Navy, that is, they are not yet up to the level of radar fire control.

In view of this, Natsuki dispatched seven destroyers to form a lightning strike formation, and ordered them to launch a torpedo attack on the enemy fleet before dawn.

Under the guidance of the "Ruger", five German destroyers and two Irish destroyers rushed all the way to the front of the opponent's route, and just as Natsuki expected, the American and British fleets spotted these incoming ships early, and many light ships quickly turned to meet them in order to prevent the enemy ships from approaching their large ships.

In a short time, the light of flares, searchlights, and cannon flames rose and fell on the surface of the sea, confusing the human eye. Under the guidance of the lead ships, the seven Allied destroyers braved the wind and waves, marched proudly, and under the guidance of the lead ships, they divided into two routes, one way to attack the enemy light ships that were hastily deployed with naval guns and torpedoes, and all the way to the enemy's flank, and launched two rounds of torpedo attacks on the enemy's three large warships at a distance of about 4,000 meters.

When they were torpedoed by Allied destroyers, the U.S. and British fleets had already detected through radar that three large warships were approaching them. His combat flagship, the Lexington, was hailed as a marvel of modern industry when it was built, and into the '30s, it was still a supergiant in the navy, but the giant's shortcomings were as prominent as its advantages. During the Battle of the Azores, six Lexington-class ships were sunk three times and two were seriously damaged, and the long-criticized defense system really became their lifeline on the battlefield, and the horizontal protection that was vulnerable to attack in long-range artillery and anti-aircraft operations was particularly vulnerable. In view of these painful lessons, the US Navy Department has decided to carry out a second major refit of the two Lexington-class ships that have returned home for overhaul in order to greatly enhance their protection capabilities at the expense of speed, and the refit of the "Lexington" is also on the agenda.

Since the "Lexington" was not good at fighting tough battles, and the two Queen Elizabeth class ships in the company were also a little old, Hart decided to avoid the enemy's edge, use the speed of the ship to maneuver with it, and wait for the main fleet to arrive before attacking.

It has been asserted that daytime naval battles are determined by strength, and nighttime naval battles are determined by luck, although this is too absolute, but there is indeed a truth to it. Rushing, maneuvering, lightning strikes, retreating, the seven Allied destroyers launched a typical lightning attack, although five of them were equipped with radars and projected a full 42 torpedoes in the battle, but only one American destroyer was sunk, and the three large battleships were not even next to each other, and two of them were fired.

The seven Allied destroyers retreated smoothly, and the American and British light ships that exchanged fire did not follow them because they received clear instructions from their flagships. The current battlefield situation is that the US and British fleets are located due north and west, the fleet formation is scattered, and it will take time to regroup, while the Allied fleet is located due south and east, the fleet formation is neat, and the three battleships are lined up in an oblique column of the "apostrophe", according to the traditional style of the German Navy, the "Hesse" is in the lead, the "Elector" is behind it, the "Karl the Great" is at the end, and the American and British fleets are in front of their port side, so the front main gun is pointed at the target, and the rear main gun is in the limit state of clockwise turning.

At this time, the line of sight at sea is still relatively blurred, and there is no difference in the influence of the positions of the two sides on optical ranging and aiming. At a distance of 29,000 meters, or 31,700 yards, from the enemy's large warship, the "Hesse" was the first to let out a deafening roar.

"What's going on?"

Seeing the faint shadow of the ship at the end of the line of sight flashing a few dazzling lights, but the scene was silent, Thomas Hart suddenly felt incredible, did the enemy think that it was possible to hit the target at this distance?

Now that the enemy ships had opened fire, the "Lexington" sounded as usual to guard against artillery damage, and the deck quickly became empty except for the fighters in the open gun emplacements. 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, usually the shells have fallen by this time, but this time even the whistling of the shells has not yet appeared. After 50 seconds and 60 seconds, after a long wait, a scream finally came, and then on the sea about 500 meters to starboard of the "Lexington", two huge water columns suddenly rose.

Although the shells that landed in that position were no threat to the "Lexington" and its crew, many of the most intelligent officers, including Hart, realized that the situation was not good. Moments later, the enemy ships at the interface between sea and sky flashed again, and their number doubled.

Before the shells could break through the air, one of the subordinate officers reported to Hart: "Sir, the enemy fleet has a total of 25 ships, and judging from the radar detection, there is only one large battleship, three medium warships, and the rest are small ones. At the moment, the distance is too far for us to determine the type of enemy warship through optical observation. ”

Obviously, this report made Lieutenant General Hart feel a lot more relaxed. No matter what type of large battleship the enemy is, if you fight against three capital ships on your side at the same time, I am afraid it will be difficult to see a win.

"Prepare to fire!" He commanded calmly and confidently.

The second round of artillery fire from the enemy ships from more than 20,000 meters away was still more than 200 meters away from the "Lexington," and these shells did not pose any threat to the US battle cruisers except for the splashing waves, but the cautious people had already faintly seen the real threat -- in such a long-distance artillery battle, the shells fell at a very large angle, and once they hit, there was a great probability that they would penetrate the horizontal deck from top to bottom, and the damage caused by such a blow to the hull of the ship might be greater than the three or four rounds that hit the side side.

There was a brief silence on the surface of the sea as the waves rose and fell. On the three capital ships of the United States and Britain, "Lexington", "War Weathiness", and "Palermo", the crews are observing and measuring through optical rangefinders and mechanical calculators, so as to guide their main guns to attack enemy ships in the distance, and the Allied warships are also doing the same thing, but they can refer to the previous impact points, and the accuracy of the next round of shooting will be better.

On the battle bridge with a wide field of vision, Vice Admiral Hart held the binoculars with both hands steadily, and intently observed the shadow of the enemy ship on the sea line. As expected, there were sparkling flashes on the hazy sea again, but this time there were many more flashes than before, and Hart's expression suddenly became ugly - according to the common understanding, the so-called medium battleship refers to a heavy cruiser with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons, and its strength is one grade lower than that of battleships and battlecruisers, although the international naval treaty of Limerick stipulates that the main guns of heavy cruisers shall not exceed 8 inches, In fact, there are still many heavy cruisers that have been commissioned or secretly built that exceed this standard, and the largest reaches 11 inches. For various reasons, the Germans, who had historically looked at the rate of fire and efficiency of use of heavy naval guns, adopted only 8 inches and 9 inches on nearly twenty heavy cruisers of their four classes. 4-inch guns of two calibers, while the heavy cruisers of all two classes of the Irish Navy used 8-inch naval guns, and the effective range of such naval guns should not exceed 24,000 kilometers.

That is, the sight in front of you means two possibilities, one is that the enemy has greatly increased the performance of the ship's guns, making it 8 inches or 9 inches. The 4-inch gun is capable of attacking targets close to 30,000 meters, and the other is that the staff has misjudged that the 3 medium battleships are not medium battleships in the true sense, but relatively small battleships or battlecruisers built earlier, with a standard displacement of about 20,000 tons, which is very close to those heavy cruisers with a displacement of 15,000 or even 17,000 tons, equipped with 11 or 12-inch guns, Appropriate technical modifications will be able to increase their effective range from the early level to a state that meets the requirements of current naval warfare.

Vice Admiral Hart's reasoning was quickly verified, and the enemy fleet fired more than 10 shells in one breath and all fell around the fleet, and the closest impact point to the "Lexington" was more than 30 meters away, and the water column stirred up by the shells had two distinct sizes, the large one must have been made by 16-inch naval guns, and the small one was estimated to be 12 inches -- don't look at their small power, it is difficult to penetrate the armor of the key protective parts of the active capital ship, and they also fall at a large angle when shooting at a long distance in front of them. And a 12-inch caliber German-made armor-piercing projectile is enough to penetrate the two horizontal decks of the Lexington class and enter the bilge.

(End of chapter)