In the early morning of June 1, on a hill in the eastern part of the island of San Miguel, German soldiers covered in mud lay on the edge of a trench and looked ahead in horror. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 In the field of vision, two huge fleets composed of dozens of warships each set up in a distant position, firing at each other with powerful heavy artillery, and huge columns of water continued to rise on the sea surface, and the smoke of gunpowder rose one by one, and then dispersed under the sea breeze; Hundreds of warplanes chased and fired at each other in the air, and when they lowered their altitude and approached the enemy fleet, the warships on the sea would open fire fiercely, and large and small shells would build up a network of fire in the airspace at different altitudes and in different directions......

According to German custom, the collar badges of these soldiers were embroidered with the unit number, "340", which means the 340th Infantry Regiment of the German Army. They were dressed in yellow-green camouflage field uniforms and waterproof boots for the attack on Britain, and held the latest M1927 semi-automatic rifles in their hands. A few days earlier, the troops had boarded the ships from the northern ports of France, and at that time everyone had assumed that the destination was England, and only after the ships had left the port did the soldiers learn from the officers that their landing place was actually in the Azores, more than a thousand kilometers away!

The landing in Britain was a battle, and the landing in the Azores was also a battle, and the German soldiers, although surprised, did not fall into a state of discouragement or confusion. They endured the torment of a long voyage and landed on the island of San Miguel with high morale and good military appearance, but no one expected that what awaited them would be terrifying artillery fire from the sea. On the night of 31 May, heavy shelling by the American and British fleets turned the island of San Miguel into a place of death, and despite the scattered and concealed measures, the Germans still lost thousands of lives and countless more were wounded.

Fearing that the heavy shelling of the enemy fleet would be a prelude to a landing attack, the German command on the island of São Miguel issued an order to all units to alert troops to the forward positions, and when the German officers and men who had been ordered to garrison the fortifications in the east, southeast, and northeast entered the positions with trepidation, they saw a scene that they would never forget—a sea battle that many could never have dreamed of ......

In such a typical fleet battle, the large-caliber guns of the capital ships of both sides became the protagonists. Although the construction of the US Navy started later than that of Britain and Germany, relying on the strong strength of the world's largest industrial powers, they are not inferior to the European powers in the field of naval technology. When the newly commissioned German dreadnoughts were still equipped with 12-inch naval guns, the New York-class battleships of the United States had already used 14-inch naval guns, and the technical indicators of this type of naval guns were superior to those of the British naval guns developed in the same period. Since then, the Pennsylvania and New Mexico classes have continued to use 14-inch naval guns, and the main gun configuration has been changed from twin to triple, which greatly improves the intensity of firepower, while the Colorado and South Dakota classes have skipped 15 inches and are directly equipped with more powerful 16-inch guns, while the only first-class battle cruiser of the US Navy so far, the Lexington class, boldly adopted an 18-inch giant gun.

Britain lost half of its colonies due to defeat and its economy fell into a prolonged slump, and the old empire was finally not as strong as it used to be. Because the 16-inch naval guns developed by the country never met the expected technical indicators, the Sovereign-class battleships designed and built after the war still used the 15-inch naval guns of the Queen Elizabeth class, but the four twin turrets were changed to three triple guns, and after learning that the Germans planned to install 16-inch naval guns on the Tirpitz and Deutsche classes, the British Navy simply gave up the plan to develop new naval guns on its own, and instead purchased the main guns of battleships from American allies.

The Germans, who had won the last war, had a lot of money, but under the conservative idea of pursuing anti-sinking performance and balanced design, they still gradually upgraded from 14 inches to 15 and 16 inches, until the Germania-class battleships, known as the "ultimate warships", adopted 18-inch naval guns for the first time, and this did not prevent them from entering the war track with sufficient confidence - at the high-level meeting to decide whether to wage war against Britain, the three German marshals voted in favor.

The Battle of San Miguel continued to heat up amid the rumbling of cannons, and the "Deutschland" was not only an important combat force of the Allied fleet, but also played a role as a brain center. On its battle bridge, the Chief of Staff of the Fleet, General Lars, constantly provided Admiral Beinke with important combat messages through his observations: "The 'Prussia' fired a straddle!" The 'Hanover' was a little close...... 'Silesia' also fired a straddle! ”

Considering the numerical inferiority of his own capital ships, Beinke did not adopt the "many-in-one" tactic that the German Navy had made good use of, but ordered each ship to attack in position. The flag of the commander of the fleet of Standley was still flying high on the mast of the "South Dakota", but the black smoke rising from the ship obviously affected the transmission of combat orders, and the battle formation of the American and British fleets at this time was slightly chaotic, and the most powerful Britannia class was at the forefront of the fleet, but the Colorado class and the Queen Elizabeth class.

"'Hesse' hits an enemy ship...... A fire broke out on the foredeck of the enemy ship! Lars' slightly trembling voice drew the attention of the officers around him. According to the experience of the naval battles of Flanders and the Faroe Islands, as long as the first result is obtained as soon as possible in the battle, there will soon be a second, a third, and then a total rout of the enemy fleet.

The captain, Commodore Herman Dens, held up the binoculars and maliciously speculated with a slightly upturned expression on the corner of his mouth: "The enemy ship is surrounded by a lot of smoke, and it seems that the injuries are not light, if its main ammunition depot is destroyed, it ......"

Unfortunately, this hypothesis did not come true, and after a while, the "Deutschland" once again fired a huge salvo of main guns, and after a moment of waiting, Commodore Dens preempted Lars and said excitedly: "The 'Deutschland' hits the enemy ship, and the enemy ship's amidships explode, and its bridge may be finished!" ”

Lars reminded: "The Colorado class is equipped with a 45x-diameter 14-inch main gun, which is characterized by excellent protection, and the conning tower and turret are well protected by heavy armor. ”

American ship designers seem to have a natural penchant for extreme behavior, their battle cruisers have high speed and firepower, but their defenses can be terrible, and their battleships can move slowly, but their firepower and defense are very good. Since the New Mexico class, the maximum thickness of the waterline armor of American battleships of all classes has reached 13. 5 inches or 343 mm, the frontal armor of the turret is an astonishing 18 inches or 458 mm, and even the armor of the command tower is 16 inches.

Dence replied, "All right! Let's see if it's better protected or our attacks are stronger. ”

The conversation between the two gave the impression of optimism, but it was not. Around the "Deutschland", the large-caliber shells from the enemy fleet were constantly stirring up huge columns of water, and the sea surface became rough because of this, and the waves formed by the falling columns of water continued to rush to the nearby battleships, and were instantly shattered by solid steel.

Regardless of the outcome of the Battle of San Miguel, Admiral Beanke's courage and courage in daring to use 7 battleships against the enemy's 12 battleships were commendable, and the reason why he dared to attack was not only because the enemy's flagship was bombed and temporarily lost his command ability, but also because of the great significance of the island of San Miguel in the Battle of the Azores, and there was absolutely no room for failure......

The communications officer sent a telegram, Lars glanced at it, and immediately reported to the fleet commander: "Sir, the 'Zeppelin' is calling, the second wave of bombers is gathering and is expected to arrive on the battlefield in 5 minutes. ”

"The whole fleet turned left to the compass point, and the speed increased to 22 knots!" Beinke gave the order in an icy tone.

At the present distance, the Allied fleet's shells had a good hit rate, and turning left meant closing the distance to the other side, and once both sides were within the effective distance of each other's visual ranging instruments, the German battleships' hit rate would increase, and the enemy's firing accuracy would also be greatly improved.

Seeing that Beinke was so decisive, Lars did not hesitate in the slightest.

After passing the order down, he turned around, and Bernke still stood motionless.

As the distance between the two sides closes. The shells that fell on the nearby sea became more and more threatening. The atmosphere in the bridge of the "Deutschland" became solemn, and Lars and Dens no longer bickered, but followed the changes in the tide of battle with extremely serious expressions.

With a bang, the "Hanover" became the first German battleship to be fired by enemy artillery. A 16-inch armor-piercing shell hit the battleship, which had been in service for less than two years, at a horizontal angle of nearly 15 degrees, and such a shell was huge in terms of speed, mass and power, and the stern of the "Hanover" sank, and a secondary gun turret flew into the sky.

Immediately afterwards, another shell hit the "Hesse", and although the frontal armor of the battleship's No. 2 turret was not directly pierced by the 406-mm armor-piercing shells flying from 15,000 yards away, the violent explosion made the two main guns suddenly dumb.

Seeing that the losses of his own fleet were gradually increasing, Beinke on the "Deutschland" still looked at the American and British fleets in the distance without changing his face. The enemy's naval guns were superior in numbers, and the battleships on their side showed the advantage of high rate of fire and high accuracy, and the fire and black smoke rising from time to time on the side of the American and British fleets meant that the other side was under the same pressure.

"The 'Deutschland' hit the enemy ship again, the enemy ship's No. 3 turret was shot, there was a violent explosion, and black smoke went straight into the sky, it must be finished, finished!"

Dennes's relieved voice relieved the officers slightly, but then, as if their world had suddenly collapsed, all their senses were distorted, their legs could barely support their bodies, and their heads buzzed in chaos - experienced officers immediately realized that their battleship had been hit!

Commodore Dens leaned against the bulkhead to avoid falling, he turned to look out of the porthole, the smoke of the explosion came from the middle and rear of the battleship, although the power of large-caliber armor-piercing shells was sufficient, but as long as it did not hit the ammunition depot, the displacement of such a ship as "Deutschland" reached 5. A 60,000-ton super battleship is nothing, and if it really hits the ammunition depot, it will only be considered unlucky.

In fact, a 406-mm armor-piercing projectile penetrated through the area of the non-main armor belt between the deputy conning tower of the "Deutschland" and the chimney No. 2, and in the violent explosion, the flue, the pantry, the officer's bedroom, the toilet, the sailor's cabin, the bathroom, and the equipment warehouse in this position were devastated, and the upper part of the No. 4 boiler room was also blown out of a large hole, and the entire battleship was safe, except for the blood on the open air anti-aircraft guns and twin 20-mm machine gun positions......

Without waiting for his command team to completely recover from the horror just now, Admiral Beinke ordered loudly: "The whole fleet will turn one compass point to the right, and the speed will be increased to 24 knots!" ”

Lars was still a little confused by the decision of the fleet commander, and after conveying the order, he asked tentatively: "Sir, please forgive me for being humble and stupid, how much of a small maneuver can play in such a large-scale artillery battle?" ”

Beinke glanced at him faintly, and his lips moved: "Attract the attention of the enemy." ”

Lars was so clever that he immediately understood the gist of it, and his eyes immediately turned to the northern sea.

In the waters north of São Miguel Island, under the command of the titan Max Bastian, the "Mackensen", "Hindenburg", "Heilingen" and the accompanying cruisers were smashing to the flank of the American and British fleets at a speed of 30 knots, and none of the capital ships of the opposing American and British fleets could match these German battle cruisers in terms of maneuverability.

Compared with the war patrols of other countries, the biggest advantage of the German war cruisers is their excellent protection capabilities. The Moltke, Seydlitz, and De Linger classes, which were designed and built in the early days, had armor as thick as dreadnoughts of other countries, and their protective performance withstood the test of actual combat, and it can even be said that it was one of the key factors in the German Navy's victory in a series of naval battles from 1914 to 1915. The Mackensen and Earl Tirpitz classes built after the war continued to carry on this characteristic, and until the dust settled on the battle at sea on 23 May, it was believed that the German battle cruisers could still outmaneuver their opponents in a fair and equal engagement, including the American Lexington class, which had the largest caliber naval guns, and perhaps only the British Admiral class had a chance to break this "myth" - although the sinking of the "Count Tirpitz" was a considerable blow to the German Navy and its battle cruiser forces, But instead of thinking that there was a problem with the design of the battleship or that the commander made a bad decision, it was blamed on bad luck for this loss.

The Count Tirpitz class is an improved version of the Mackensen class, and if the three Mackensen classes under the command of Vice Admiral Bastian can perform well in this fleet battle, it is undoubtedly the best name for the Count Tirpitz class.

(End of chapter)