Chapter 787: Conquest of Bermuda (Medium)
Bermuda is located in the North Atlantic Ocean, about 900 kilometers from North America, and is the oldest British Overseas Territory. As early as the 16th century www.biquge.info Spanish and Portuguese ships set up fresh meat and fresh water supply depots here, but the legends of ghosts and devils made people afraid to settle on this "devil's island" for a long time. By the 17th century, the tobacco industry, shipbuilding and salt trade had developed, and immigration from Europe increased, and Bermuda became a strategic base for the British navy, which continued into the early 20th century.
From the air, Bermuda looks like a fishhook-shaped island, but it is actually made up of seven main islands and more than 150 small islands and reefs, some of which are concentrated in a narrow area less than 30 kilometers long from east to west and about 20 kilometers wide from north to south, with a total land area of only 71. 7 square kilometers, half the size of Flores Island, but more than three times larger than Corvo Island. At the outbreak of war in 1933, Bermuda had more than 20,000 inhabitants, but by the autumn of 1934 there were fewer than 200 inhabitants left, and the number of soldiers from the United States and Commonwealth countries had increased to 22,000. The two previous attacks on Bermuda by the Allied fleet were fruitless, which made the United States and Britain give Bermuda's defense system a very high evaluation, but objectively speaking, it was not the coastal fortifications on the island or the surrounding mine arrays that prevented the German Admiral Beinke, but thanks to the excellent command of Ernest Joseph King. Of course, Beanke, who was back in command of the main fleet of the Central Powers, withstood heavy pressure, did not rush or rush, did not make rash moves, and although he failed to take Bermuda in two attacks, he did not lose a single capital ship during the period, and tested the opponent's bottom at a relatively small cost, and consumed the opponent's vital strength.
When the two newly commissioned Germania-class battleships arrived in the Azores, Beinke cleverly waged psychological warfare with his opponents, and he deliberately held a grand welcoming ceremony at Angra de Marísmo de Heroísmo on the island of Texel, inviting officers and men and war correspondents from Italy, Austria-Hungary, Ireland, Ottomans, and other countries stationed in the Azores to watch the ceremony.
At the same time, Beanke was not in a hurry to march to Bermuda, he divided his aircraft carriers into two groups and took turns to conduct confrontation exercises, so that the novices who were relatively inexperienced in actual combat could feel the rhythm and atmosphere of the battle in advance, especially so that the commanders of the newly commissioned aircraft carriers could master the methods of dealing with various unexpected situations. In the first week of October, he unhurriedly organized a battle fleet, ordered all ships to replenish supplies and manpower, and sailed out of the Azores one by one with a reconnaissance fleet, a combat fleet, a support fleet, and a landing fleet, and rushed to the battlefield in high spirits.
From Flores Island in the northern part of the Azores to Bermuda, the distance in a straight line is about 1,000 nautical miles. At the beginning, the US-British coalition forces rushed to the Azores, and the landing fleet sailed more than 1,500 nautical miles and drifted at sea for more than a week, and with the current combat support capability of the Allied fleet, it was fully capable of launching a landing operation in Bermuda, and the biggest obstacle at present was the main fleet of the United States and Britain under the command of King -- although it failed to turn the tide of the Azores war, he was promoted to wartime admiral and succeeded Chatfield in taking command of the fleet by virtue of his successful organization of allied ships and troops to withdraw to North America at the end of the campaign. Later, because of the two blockades of the Allied fleet, Bermuda became the most dazzling general of the American and British camps.
Kim and Beinke, one likes to take risks and make dangerous moves, and the other is stable and first, with tenacity and courage. The third meeting between the two camps in Bermuda was the most intriguing battlefield attraction of the period, with the European media widely predicting a hard-fought victory for Beinke and pushing the front to the Americans' doorstep.
With the entry of Italy and Austria-Hungary into the war, the Western Allies were brought into the wartime orbit on a scale equal to that of North America, and with the addition of the Ottoman Empire and Japan, the Allies were already one position ahead of their opponents in war power. In the first three quarters of 1934, the United States and British Canada completed the construction of a total of 1,255 combat ships, an increase of 140 percent over the same period of the previous year, behind the huge number of scale, behind the defensive short-range torpedo boats, submarine destroyers, and small submarines, which accounted for more than half, the increase in tonnage was only 42 percent, and there was not a new capital ship of more than 40,000 tons in service. Relying on the main battleships that returned to the front line after repair, King commanded a coalition fleet of 7 battleships, 3 battlecruisers, and 33 aircraft carriers, and his opponent now also has 7 battleships, and the combined combat power of the two Germania-class ships is stronger than any previous capital ship, which is likely to play a qualitative role on the battlefield. As for the naval aviation, the main force of the new generation of naval warfare, although the US-British coalition forces have acquired 4 regular aircraft carriers and 25 auxiliary aircraft carriers, and have supplemented more than 3,000 carrier-based aircraft and more than 5,000 qualified carrier-based aircraft pilots, judging from their strength on paper, they have not only recovered from the heavy losses in the Azores campaign, but have also greatly expanded, but the gap between them and their opponents has not narrowed, but is still widening -- including the Italian aircraft carriers that have been put into the Atlantic front. The Western Allies have replenished 9 regular aircraft carriers and 28 auxiliary aircraft carriers, and the overall quality of the pilots is clearly superior.
Strategically, the U.S. and British navies are in a comprehensive position in the upcoming Third Battle of Bermuda, but at the tactical level, King still has the advantage of being agile and maneuverable, rather than having to take care of the safety of the landing fleet as his opponents do.
On 9 October, the Allied reconnaissance fleet appeared in the waters east of Bermuda, but contrary to the expectations of the United States and Britain, the Allied Navy incorporated three Confederate-class aircraft carriers into the reconnaissance fleet, so that fire reconnaissance was no longer carried out by combat ships risking close to Bermuda. At dawn on that day, two waves of 59 carrier-based planes raided Bermuda in the form of ultra-low-altitude flights, damaging 12 US and British land-based fighters parked at the airport, killing and wounding dozens of US and British officers and men, and conducting close aerial reconnaissance of the waters around the Bermuda-class. After the raid, the Allied reconnaissance fleet headed south at high speed, and then used carrier-based fighters to block the counterattack of the American and British air forces.
On 11 October, the USS Clownfish, a United States submarine patrolling the waters southeast of Bermuda, spotted a large Allied battle fleet and fired torpedoes at one of the large warships. The submarine commander judged that two torpedoes had hit the target, and after dodging a retaliatory attack by the enemy escort ships, it sent a report to his command that afternoon.
On the same day, a British reconnaissance plane taking off from the Bermuda airport also observed the whereabouts of the Allied fleet, but it was blocked by the interception of enemy fighters and only took photographs at a relatively long distance.
A defensive counterattack, a siege of Wei to save Zhao, the first two times to defeat the opponent, Jin used two different tactical strategies, the third time with the same opponent, he decisively used the third strategy: sound east and west. Early in the morning of 12 October, carrier-based bombers and seaplanes of the US and British navies conducted a large-scale search for the possible positions of the Allied fleet in a fan-shaped queue. Sure enough, the Allied carrier-based aircraft launched reconnaissance in the opposite direction, and found a sea formation with battleships and aircraft carriers before noon, at this time, King led the main force of the fleet quietly forward to the northeast of Bermuda, only to wait for the Allied fleet to dispatch a large-scale sortie of carrier-based aircraft, and then sent the main force of the sea air force to launch a surprise attack from the enemy's flank.
His battle fleet has 7 regular aircraft carriers and more than 500 carrier-based aircraft, and only 90 fighters were put into the first wave of the attack, and after the air attack group took off, Beinke immediately ordered 3 fighter squadrons to take up defense and 4 fighter squadrons to stand by on the flight deck, so when the nearly 200 carrier-based aircraft groups of the King fleet attacked from the north, the Allied battle fleet quickly organized a strong air defense, not only thatAt a position of more than 200 kilometers behind the battle fleet, the support fleet with two regular aircraft carriers and 26 auxiliary aircraft carriers was ready to respond at any time, and as soon as the enemy's main fleet appeared, the support fleet organized a huge fleet of nearly 300 fighters in a very short period of time, and they were not only the outposts for reverse reconnaissance and search, but also the vanguard of counterattacks against the enemy.
In the naval and air battle on the morning of October 12, King's main attack aircraft group showed strong fighting spirit, and under the cover of his own fighters, the carrier-based bombers repeatedly broke through the interception of enemy aircraft and the blockade of naval guns, successfully sank the Italian aircraft carrier "Garibaldi", severely damaged the Irish aircraft carrier "Liberal", and bombed two brand-new Germania-class battleships, and damaged one of them. The first wave of air strikes by the US and British fleets was relatively successful, but in the face of the surging enemy carrier-based aircraft group, King no longer had a chance to launch a second wave of air strikes. In this battle, the Allied carrier-based aircraft group unceremoniously damaged two regular aircraft carriers under the command of Jin, and easily piggybacked on two auxiliary aircraft carriers converted from cargo ships to the bottom of the sea.
(End of chapter)