When the roof of the bridge of the "Prince of Wales" was hit by a bombshell, the two fleets also set up an artillery battle in the North Sea, east of the Shetland Islands. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Gunther. Admiral Lütjens, dressed in a straight military uniform and white gloves, stood impeccably on the bridge of the "Bismarck", as if to be inspected by His Majesty the Kaiser.

Two Bismarck-class, one Scharnhorst-class, and two Admiral-Hipper-class ships lined up, and 22 380mm heavy guns and 16 203mm heavy cruiser guns were all aimed at the rapidly approaching British fleet to the north.

Everyone held their breath and was engrossed, and no one even noticed the fierce battle in the air and sea that was taking place in the port of Lerwick not far away.

After two hours of wandering around the harbor of Lerwick, and finally waiting for the bombers from Bergen and Stavanger, and thinking that they could return triumphantly, a large British fleet appeared in front of the eyes of the German First High Seas Fleet.

The main force of this British fleet was 1 Nelson-class battleship, 1 Prestige-class battlecruiser, 1 King George V-class battleship, plus an old-fashioned Revenge-class battleship. A total of 16 15-inch cannons, 10 14-inch cannons and 9 16-inch cannons.

In terms of firepower, it far surpassed the fleet commanded by Admiral Lütjans, but it was daytime! Moreover, the sea surface of the battle was only three or four hundred kilometers away from Bergen and Stavanger.

As long as the German fleet could hold out for another two hours, the 24 JU88s, 24 S.M.79s, 16 Fokker Zeros and 16 FW-190s that had taken off from Stavanger would have flown over to give the British battleships a bit of a beating.

Moreover, the previous record of the sinking of the "Hood" by the "Gneisenau" (or possibly "Eugen" or "Lützov") was also given to Gunther. Admiral Ruetjens has increased his confidence. He knew that theoretically, the 380mm guns of the "Gneisenau" would be difficult to deal with the armor of the "Hood", let alone penetrate the ammunition magazine with one shot. Therefore, the results achieved by the "Gneisenau" are most likely due to cutting corners and using substandard armor plates.

If the armor plates of the "Hood" were not up to standard, then it was possible that other British battleships would have had the same problem, so Gunther . Lütjans wanted to try his luck. In the event that the "Nelson" is blown up with another shot, then the sea supremacy in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea will almost be in hand.

"Seize the T-shaped position, target the 'Nelson', concentrate firepower!"

Gunther. Lütjans gave the order. The maximum speed of the "Nelson" class is only 23 knots, while the "Revenge" class is only 21.5 knots. As a result, the speed of the British ship formation could only be maintained at 21.5 knots. The speed of the German ship formation was as high as 29 knots, a difference of 8.5 knots, so it was no problem to grab a T-shaped position.

However, the "Nelson", the leader of the British ship formation, was a difficult character to deal with, although it was relatively slow, but it had a 16-inch main gun and strong armor.

"The distance is 28,000 meters."

"Heading to the southeast, 20 degrees to the left, begin to calculate the shelling of Zhuyuan."

"Order of formation, Nelson vs. Bismarck, King George V vs. Tirpitz, Prestige vs. Gneisenau, Lamilis vs. Admiral Hippel (actually Prince Eugen)......"

At the same time, in the bridge of the battleship "Nelson", the gunnery staff officer had already arranged the shelling plan, stood in front of the console with a telephone, and waited for Admiral Tovey to give the final order.

Tovey picked up his binoculars, but instead of looking at the enemy ships on the sea, he was looking up at the sky. He was looking for a group of carrier-based aircraft sent by the "Ark Royal" and "Dreadnought" - the SBD dive bombers and TBD torpedo bombers on these two aircraft carriers were the trump cards of the home fleet!

Admiral Tovey didn't want these 41 SBDs and TBDs to sink a single German battleship, which was a bit too high. After all, there are now more than a dozen Fokker Zeros escorting the German ship formation, and they will not let the British planes comfortably drop bombs and torpedoes.

However, there is still hope for damage, as long as a German battleship can be blown up and slowed down, then Fleet A will be able to avenge the "Hood".

"Admiral," the radar officer of the USS Nelson suddenly shouted excitedly, "the radar has found an unknown group of aircraft, in the northwest direction, and there are more than 50 of them!" ”

"That's our plane, they're coming just in time!" Tovey clapped his hands and ordered loudly, "We will now turn with the German fleet, keep the distance at 23,000 meters, and we can't let them grab the T-shaped position no matter what!" ”

With the bitter lesson of the "Hood" last night, Admiral Tovey did not dare to get too close to the German battleship, let alone let the "Nelson" use the bow to face the enemy.

"Admiral! The radar detected enemy aircraft, numbering more than 50, flying from the northwest at a distance of 80 km! ”

The search radar on the "Bismarck" had already detected the incoming British plane by this time. Gunther. Admiral Lütjans frowned, now is the time to fight an artillery battle with the British, and there is no way to set up an air defense formation, these British planes are really coming.

But Gunther. There is nothing Lütjans can do now, and it is impossible to escape. Because the British formation chose to turn at the same time at a distance of 23,000 meters from the German formation, the two sides are now sailing in parallel. Even if the German fleet wanted to break away, it would have to get rid of the other side with speed while exchanging fire, and it would not be possible to turn around and hand over the ass to the other side. Therefore, Lütjans had no choice but to order the group of planes to cover up and block the British planes, and at the same time order the fleet to maintain a top speed of 29 knots, ready to turn again to seize the T-shaped position.

……

"Lieutenant Hersman, two o'clock, target spotted!"

At the same time that the British's carrier-based aircraft were approaching the main force of the German High Seas Fleet, Hersmann Jr., who was the commander-in-chief of the first air attack assault wave of the German aircraft carrier part, heard a good news from the earphones that made him feel comfortable.

Because he was flying a fighter, it was very inconvenient to be the commander-in-chief. Originally, Major Max was going to arrange for someone else to be the commander-in-chief, but he fought the basis of reason, and was able to command this wave of air raids as the acting captain of the 1st Carrier-based Aircraft Group in accordance with the usual practice.

But who knows that the first assault wave flew over the location where the British fleet was found and wandered around for a while, but it did not find where the British aircraft carrier was. This made little Hersman very anxious, and it would be a bit embarrassing to return empty-handed in the end.

Fortunately, Hersman's precious son was lucky. After burrowing through a thick cloud layer, a British fleet appeared on the surface.

"1 aircraft carrier, 1 cruiser, and 6 destroyers!"

"Found it, found it!"

There was a cheer from the headphones.

Little Hersmann also shouted excitedly: "God bless Germany!" It's ...... time for us! ”

Seeing the Fokker 99 dive bomber emerging from the clouds, Somerville's eyes almost fell out.

He was not surprised by the sudden appearance of these German planes, which had already been spotted by the radar on the "Ark Royal". Otherwise, the Ark Royal would not have taken refuge under a large cloud (the Dreadnought, protected by several other cruisers and destroyers, under other clouds).

But he did not expect that among the German planes that came to bomb would be Fokker Type 99 carrier-based dive bombers!

This is a carrier-based aircraft! And according to intelligence, there is no Fokker 99 in Germany's shore-based aviation forces, only 2 aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft training bases have Fokker 99!

Now that the Fokker 99 is here, it means that there must be a German aircraft carrier nearby, and it is the "only" aircraft carrier - if it can be found and sunk, the British Royal Navy will be able to continue to control the sea by virtue of the superiority of aircraft carriers!

"Send a telegram to the Coastal Air Command and ask them to send planes to search the waters 300-400 nautical miles east of us!"

Just as Somerville was loudly giving orders to the communications officer on the Ark Royal, a fierce air battle was already unfolding over the aircraft carrier. Because the radar detected the incoming enemy aircraft in advance, Somerville naturally sent all 12 "Sea Spitfires" in his hands. In addition, the British Coastal Sea and Air Command also has eight P-51s to cover the "Ark Royal".

But how could 12 "Sea Spitfires" and 8 P-51s piloted by rookie pilots block 24 Fokker 99s piloted by ace pilots?

"Open the jet, and fight quickly!" Hirschmann Jr. did not intend to slowly grind with these 20 enemy planes, and as soon as he came up, he ordered all the Fokker Zero pilots to "knock the medicine" on the engine. After turning on the injection combustion system, the 24 Fokker Zeros suddenly picked up speed, like 24 winged tigers, and swooped down on the British planes on the opposite side, and soon shot down several "Sea Spitfires" and P-51s.

Just as the Fokker Zero was chasing the "Sea Spitfire" and the P-51, 36 Fokker Zeros also began to break through.

Although British surface ships have also continuously strengthened their anti-aircraft firepower over the past year or so, the 40mm caliber anti-aircraft guns selected by the British Admiralty for their ships are "ping-pong guns" with a fast rate of fire but a short range, and their large-caliber anti-aircraft guns also do not have radio proximity fuses, so they pose little threat to dive bombers such as Fokker 99. The anti-aircraft fire network shot by the ship's anti-aircraft guns simply could not stop the assault of the Fokker 99!

by Hans. Ulrich. The first 250-kilogram armor-piercing bomb dropped by Lieutenant Rudel accurately hit the armored deck of the "Ark Royal...... (To be continued.) )