On the night of May 2, the Irish Sea. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

British Home Fleet, flagship, battleship Queen Elizabeth.

The hull with a standard displacement of 32,468 tons sailed at a speed of 18 knots in a sea full of moonlight and stars, but no light came through.

Inside the bridge, John. Koronin. Admiral Tovey stood beside him with his arms crossed, his brows furrowed as he watched his staff officers point to the charts and discuss calculations.

Since the order was given this afternoon to leave Clyde Firth, there has been no cessation of discussion and diagram deduction on the bridge. And the result of each deduction is almost the same, that is, the home fleet will win a big victory in the naval battle in the early hours of tomorrow morning!

It should be a big win!

Because this time the Royal Navy has an absolute advantage in strength. According to reconnaissance by submarines and seaplanes, the main forces of the combined European fleet were not within 400 nautical miles of the island of Ireland before dark today. This means that even if the battleships of the Combined European Fleet could maintain a speed of 30 knots all the time, they would not be able to feel the waters off the coast of Ireland for 13 hours. Moreover, it is impossible for the battleships of the European Combined Fleet to maintain a speed of 30 knots all the time, and it is already the limit to be able to maintain 25 knots for more than ten hours in a row.

Therefore, the British home fleet will arrive a few or a dozen hours earlier than the main forces of the European Combined Fleet in any case.

If the German fleet, jutting out of the English Channel, reaches Cork Bay this afternoon without meeting the combined European fleet, then the seven battleships of the Home Fleet will be able to enter into a decisive battle with the three or four battlecruisers of the Germans.

"It's impossible to lose, 7 battleships can sink 4 battlecruisers with their eyes closed, besides, the P-class battlecruisers of the Germans only have 6 280mm guns, how can such firepower hurt our battleships?"

"But what about those damn wire-by-wire glide bombs? Maybe there will be a very ***108s hanging that kind of bomb to attack us. ”

"That won't work, our battleships and cruisers have 5.25-inch anti-aircraft guns on them, and they're going to smash those planes to pieces. And the projected place of engagement is only a few dozen nautical miles from Wales, and there will be a lot of Spitfires to cover us. ”

"Maybe the fleet of the Germans will not appear at all, there will only be thousands of planes waiting for us there."

"With Spitfire and Mustang cover, the damage won't be too great. Moreover, minelaying did not need to be on battleships, if the German fleet did not show up, let the destroyers and minelayers complete the minelaying, and the capital ships could retreat along the coastline of Wales...... But the task of laying mines must be completed, otherwise the German Army would soon occupy the entire island of Ireland. Then we will lose the war! ”

"Yes, the Germans must be prevented from sending troops to Ireland in large quantities...... At least not for them to easily transport the troops over. In this way, the army will be able to wipe out the tens of thousands of Germans who have landed in Ireland! ”

The reasoning was quickly explained to the staff officers, the home fleet had to be dispatched, and more German land forces had to be prevented from landing on the island of Ireland...... At the very least, delay their arrival on the island. The Germans could not be allowed to land tens of thousands of people at once, let alone allow them to hoard heavy equipment on the island in Brest. Otherwise, the British Army would not be able to defeat the Germans even if it had three heads and six arms, and once Germany took the island of Ireland.

Then for the British Empire, it is the end of the world!

Admiral Tovey thought of the end of the Empire, but suddenly his mind came to mind a beautiful house and a beautiful and peaceful farmstead. It was his estate in Canada, and his wife, grandson, granddaughter, and daughter-in-law had already taken the Queen Mary to Canada, and should have moved into their new home. If the homeland falls and you get away with it, then Canada is the place of the end......

Just as I was thinking that I would probably spend my old age in Canada, I heard the sound of hurried footsteps coming from behind.

"Report, received a telegram from the Coast Air Force that the German landing fleet is passing near the Cornish Peninsula and the destination is most likely Cork Bay."

This news suddenly warmed up the air in the bridge, and Admiral Tovey hurriedly walked to the chart and asked, "Where is the specific location?" ”

"Here, it was detected with airborne radar."

The staff officer pointed to the Minary Islands near the Cornish Peninsula: "It is 150 nautical miles from us...... In the last few hours, they have apparently picked up speed, most likely leaving behind the slow transports. At the current rate, we could be met in three and a half hours. ”

"Three and a half hours!"

This timetable of engagements, not to mention the staff officers around him, even the experienced Admiral Tovey was a little dumbfounded.

It's not yet midnight, and three and a half hours later, it's 3 a.m., and it's not dawn yet!

"The Germans want to fight us at night?" Admiral Tovey thought it was incredible. No matter how you count your own troops, you have more troops than the other side, and according to intelligence, Germany's radar technology is still a little worse than that of the British. So why did the commander of the German Navy choose to start a war at night without a good air superiority?

How does this look like a trap!

"Great!" Admiral Tovey gritted his teeth, he had to drill into a trap!

He said: "Now regroup, the heavy cruiser Essecet, the light cruiser Birmingham, the light cruiser Moon Goddess, the minelayer cruiser Adventure, the minelayer cruiser Al Budil, the minelayer cruiser Latona, the minelayer cruiser Isleman, the minelayer cruiser Welshman, plus the 5th destroyer squadron to form the B fleet, and immediately go to the Bay mine-laying ......"

Now the British Royal Navy has 5 mine-laying cruisers, of which the Adventure mine-laying cruiser is an old ship built in the 20s, which can carry 280 mines, but the speed is relatively slow, the fastest is only 28 knots. The other 4 Abudhir ships are all new, with speeds of up to 35-36 knots and can carry 150 mines. The five minelayers carried a total of 880 mines, enough to blockade Cork Bay for some time.

……

On the missile cruiser USS Frederick I, Admiral Kars also stood by the chart table.

"Where is the British Home Fleet?"

"It's already in the St. George's Strait, and it will be with us in two hours at most."

Night reconnaissance aircraft equipped with radars are also not a British patent, and there are many aircraft in Germany equipped with FUG200 series search radars, which can closely monitor the St. George's Strait and the Keitel Sea at night.

"Sir, 15 minutes ago, the reconnaissance plane also discovered that the British Home Fleet had made a division."

At this time, the latest news came.

"Division?"

"There's a fleet of ships speeding to Cork Bay." The fleet's interrogator replied.

"They're going to Brook Bay to lay mines." The Chief of Staff, Colonel Wagner, immediately thought of the intention of dividing the British fleet.

"Looks like we're going to have to get busy with minesweeping tomorrow!"

When General Kars said this, a cold glint suddenly flashed in his eyes: "But tonight we must let the British taste the power of the V3 wire-controlled missile!" Accelerate, 28 knots! Be sure to engage before 2 o'clock and exit the battle before dawn! ”

……

The night was as thick as ink, and the sea was so dark that it was almost impossible to see anything on the surface of the sea, even if it was a thousand meters away, unless a Japanese cat-eye warrior had come to Europe. However, what cannot be seen clearly by the human eye can be easily detected with radar, such as the large fleet on the sea, which cannot hide the FW-200C hovering in the air. This aircraft, which was not superior in performance, because of its large range and considerable payload, was now a very useful reconnaissance/patrol aircraft in the Luftwaffe and naval aviation.

Under normal circumstances, the FW-200Cs will act alone, and there will be no fighters to escort them. However, tonight was a special situation, as nine FW-200Cs formed a rare reconnaissance aircraft formation, following the main force of the British Home Fleet all the way south. Each FW-200C had several flares hanging from its internal bomb bay, ready to "expose" the British fleet in the sea below.

And Manfred. Lieutenant Murray leads a squadron of 16 planes tonight, covering nine FW-200Cs. Four HE-219 night fighters with excellent night combat capabilities are now hovering over three FW-200C detachments (each detachment is three FW-200Cs) in a zigzag formation, repeatedly scanning the surroundings with airborne radar. Search for possible British night fighters!

Because everyone knows that British ships are equipped with very advanced anti-air and sea-to-sea search radars. It was impossible for as many as 25 German planes circling over their heads not to be detected. Detection would mean that there would be British night fighters to expel the FW-200C, and it would be Lieutenant Murray's turn to use the He-219.

"Lieutenant, the radar has found the target! At 8 o'clock, above us, there could be a couple of mosquitoes! ”

Manfred. Lieutenant Murray's headset came the voice of Wingman Sergeant Miller.

"Just in time, the 2nd detachment will attack and let these mosquitoes know how good we are."

Four He-219s whizzed like several mosquito planes hovering down from high in the sky, and in the blink of an eye, there was a flash of fire in the dark night. There are a total of 32 20mm or 30mm cannons on the 4 HE-219 aircraft, and the firepower far exceeds that of the Mosquito. A mosquito plane that could not dodge was beaten into a ball of fire on the spot, and it spun and planted itself into the sea from the air. Less than 1 minute later, another burst of fire flashed in the sky, and then another burning plane fell from the sky!

The night battle in the Celtic Sea in the early hours of May 3 was kicked off by He-219 and Mosquito aircraft. (To be continued.) )