"Boom! Rumble! Boom ......"

The Berlin, an M-class reconnaissance cruiser sailing in front of the missile cruiser USS Frederick I, fired the first shot of the "Night Battle of the Celtic Sea" in the early hours of May 3. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 The 2 turrets in the bow of the INFO Berlin fired 4 150mm flares under the guidance of the fire control radar.

"Target found!"

When 4 lights with glare of light pop up above the British 5th Sentai team. In the missile operation room, located on the roof of the bridge of the USS Frederick I, someone immediately shouted: "Direction 125, distance 18700, aim now!" ”

Aiming is not possible in the missile control room, as it is the responsibility of the personnel on the missile deck, who will align the missile in the appropriate bearing and adjust the elevation angle according to the parameters reported by the missile observer/operator officer.

"Direction 125, distance 18700, number 1 is aiming!"

"Direction 125, distance 18700, No. 2 aiming complete!"

The voice of the commander of the missile deck was heard from the lifter, and the commander of the operation in the operation room (there were 2 operators in charge of each of the 2 missiles, one of whom was the commander of the operation) immediately gave the order: "Launch 1, launch 2." ”

Receiving the order, the operators on the missile deck immediately started the engine in the tail section of the V3 missile, the propeller quickly rotated, and the indicator light in the tail of the missile was turned on. Immediately after that, someone pressed the button of the No. 1 catapult, and saw the No. 1 bullet ejected into the air with a bang, and then pressed the No. 2 catapult to launch the No. 2 bomb into the air.

These two missiles are actually a large **********, and after being launched, the two operators in the operating room can use the remote control handle to steer them into targets at a distance of 18,700 meters.

The target was a rather old heavy cruiser, the Cavendish class, designed in 1915, when the concept of a heavy cruiser was not yet available. The Royal Navy designed the 10,000-ton ship with 7.5-inch (190.5mm) guns to deal with German raiders. However, such an attack ship as the P-class (the P-class was originally an attack ship) is certainly not something it can deal with, and the P-class also frantically fired 2 overpowered anti-ship missiles at it.

Although the V3 wire-controlled missile has a small range, the final model equipped with the German Navy can only fly 30,000 meters under its own power. But its size and weight have reached an astonishing level, the total flight weight reached 2.2 tons, and the warhead charge was up to 850 kg of explosives!

The reason why it was created like this is that it is not very convenient to fill the missile during the battle, and it cannot talk about the rate of fire at all, so it can only pursue high power and strive to sink it with one shot.

Just as the 2 V3s flew at a speed of 360 km/h (theoretically they could fly 600 km/h, but flying so fast that it was difficult to maneuver at night, so the V3's speed in night combat was reduced to 360 km/h), the British heavy cruiser also fired flares at Frederick I.

"God, it's a battlecruiser!"

Captain Jackson, the captain of the Cavendish Fleet, was immediately stunned by the sheer size of the 24,000-ton hull at the sight of the Frederick I, illuminated by the flares. Such a big guy is obviously not something that a 10,000-ton heavy cruiser can deal with, but the 5th Sentai he led is now considered to have completed the task - as long as he finds the German battlecruiser and illuminates it with flares, the seven British battleships behind it will naturally clean it up.

"Colonel, 2 glowing UFOs are flying over!"

Colonel Jackson was about to order the destroyers in the squadron to smoke to cover the Cavendish retreat when he heard a UFO coming.

What is this? Colonel Jackson searched the night sky with a telescope, and saw two unknown things, glowing with a faint red light, flying towards him at a speed of about three or four hundred kilometers per hour.

"It's a torpedo machine!" The colonel did not know that there were missiles, only that there were torpedo attack aircraft, "Shoot them down!" ”

No sooner had he given his order than the pong cannon on the port side of the Cavendish had fired. But it is not easy to shoot down a V3 missile. Because the missile has a slender body and a small frontal bomb area, it is impossible to lose control of the missile by killing the pilot. Moreover, the body of the V3 missile is very strong, and it is impossible for the armor-piercing warhead in front of the front to penetrate at all, and it does not make much sense to hit it. The metal wings are relatively short and not easy to hit.

The more lethal place is a 1,000-horsepower liquid-cooled engine and propeller produced by Mercedes-Benz that "cut corners" and is installed on the back of the missile body.

However, since there is no need to think about heat dissipation (the V3 flies for a few minutes, so it is not afraid of high temperatures), the engine is very tightly wrapped in a steel shell, and it is difficult to destroy it with shrapnel unless it is directly hit by a 40mm shell. Therefore, it is very difficult to get a V3 missile down.

And even if the V3's engine or propeller is destroyed, it is not the same as the missile falling. Because inertia will continue to push it to glide for a certain distance, even if it falls into the water, it can still glide on the surface or underwater, and it is very likely to hit the underwater part of the target ship directly, which is equivalent to being hit by a powerful torpedo - soon after this weapon was put into use, many V3 operators discovered this trick, and they would deliberately let the V3 slide into the water to attack the underwater part of the target when it was close to the target ship.

The Cupendish's ping-pong guns didn't shoot down a single V3 missile, but one of the two V3s crashed into the port side of the heavy cruiser at 360 km/h, piercing the 3-inch armor plate on the spot, and then exploding inside the old cruiser with dome armor.

Although the V3 did not penetrate the Dome (due to its slow flight speed), the 850-kilogram ******** explosion turned the old ship into a sea salute and a floating torch. Also put on board the Queen Elizabeth commanded the battle of John. Koronin. Admiral Tovey was taken aback.

"The Cavendish was torpedoed!" Admiral Tovey exclaimed, "Damn, the Germans also have 'spear' torpedoes!" ”

The Japanese had already used the terrible 93 Spear torpedo in the Pacific and Indian Ocean theaters, and Admiral Tovey naturally knew the power of this Japanese torpedo, which had a long range and was extremely well concealed. So now as soon as I saw the Cavendish heavy cruiser being blown up without firing the main guns of the enemy battlecruisers, I immediately thought of the 93 spear torpedo.

"Boom! Rumble! ”

Before Admiral Tovey could come to his senses, there were two loud bangs, and then two more huge floating fireballs on the sea.

"It's the Berwick and the Hoggins...... 2 more heavy cruisers have been hit hard! ”

Admiral Tovey is already a little confused, how much effort is this? 3 heavy cruisers were heavily damaged...... Well, I'm afraid it's so hard that it's hopeless.

"Hurry, full speed, get out of here!"

Seeing that the sneak attack was successful, Admiral Kars did not even let Frederick I use six 280mm guns to replenish the sword, and immediately ordered to flee at full speed - the British must have battleships in this sea area, and Frederick I could not defeat them without V3 missiles.

He now finds that the 6 280mm cannons of the P-class missile cruiser are really a bit of a chicken rib, and he can't beat the battleship, and he has to hit the heavy cruiser for a while to sink, so think about it, the V3 missile is still easy to use.

"Commander, the Germans seem to be running away!"

The radar on the Elizabeth soon spotted that all six German warbands on the surface were fleeing...... But why do they run? Is it a sneak attack and leave?

"Commander, do you want to chase?"

Pursue? Catch up and get torpedoed? Admiral Tovey thought about it, and felt that it was impossible not to chase, otherwise these German ships might go to Cork Bay to release torpedoes, and the B Flotilla that was laying mines there was no match.

"Just chase them slowly, just drive them away." Admiral Tovey ordered, "Don't get too close, watch out for the Germans' spear torpedoes!" ”

However, within 10 minutes of Tovey's fleet chasing out, the radar officer reported loudly: "Commander, the enemy has turned back!" ”

"Returned?"

Admiral Tovey was stunned, did he want to release torpedoes again?

Admiral Tovey thought for a moment, gritted his teeth, and said, "Order all the patrol teams to move closer to the 1st team, lure the Germans over, and let them taste the power of the battleship's main guns!" ”

No matter how powerful the spear torpedo is, can it be more powerful than the main guns of the battleship? There were 7 British battleships, 5 of which were of the Queen Elizabeth class and 1 of the Ramillis with 8 15-inch cannons, and the other counterattack had 6 15-inch cannons, for a total of 54 15-inch (380mm) cannons. Not at all what 3 German battlecruisers with only 280mm cannons could deal with! As long as one ship can be sunk by concentrating firepower, then most of the remaining German ships will have to flee in disgrace.

"Commander, the British want to lead us to the guns of their battleships."

John. Tovey's idea was first seen through by Colonel Wagner, chief of staff of the 5th Fleet of the Combined European Fleet.

"This is our chance too!" "We have six V3s that can be launched, they can fly 100 meters per second, and it only takes 200 seconds to hit targets 20,000 meters away...... During this time, the British battleships fired a maximum of 5-6 volleys. It shouldn't have hit us, it's night after all. But our 6 V3s can hit at least 2 of them, and if we hit 1 battleship, we will be hit hard if it is not sinkable! (To be continued.) )