"Poof!"

A huge sound of falling water sounded, and a Sunderland "Short" seaplane, hovering in the air near the 5th Fleet of the Combined European Fleet, dragged the flames into the sea. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoNow that the distance between the two fleets is less than 30 nautical miles, a night decisive battle of the surface fleet is just around the corner.

However, in the night battle of the British and German fleets, the role of the "cat's eye warrior" has been greatly reduced. Although the British and German navies also have lookouts who knock cod liver oil and long-sightedness and night eyes every day, radar and night reconnaissance planes are the magic weapons of the British and German navies in night warfare.

However, if there is a "magic weapon", there will be a method of restraint, and the current method for the radar is to pull the balloon and throw aluminum foil strips, but this is of little significance in the decisive battle of the fleet. Because the formations on both sides are moving at high speed, where are the aluminum foil strips going to be thrown? And it's jamming the radars of both sides. As for the aluminum foil balloon, it is not very useful, because no one will only rely on radar for shooting, and flares or something still have to be fired.

And the night reconnaissance aircraft are not so lucky, the aircraft reconnoiter the ship, and the air search radar on the ship can also detect the aircraft. And both sides are now armed with good night combat aircraft, the British have the Mosquito, and the German side has the He-219, which is known as the "mosquito killer".

"Commander, the last British reconnaissance plane was knocked out!" Colonel Wagner said to General Kars, "It seems that our He-219 is still very powerful." ”

"Our planes are still staring at the British fleet?" General Kars asked.

"Still keeping an eye on it, the British don't have a night fighter plane that can deal with the He-219!"

"Good!"

Admiral Kars nodded and ordered: "Now form a squadron, and the USS Frederick I (P-class), USS Berlin (M-class cruisers), and USS Cologne (M-class cruisers) form the 1st missile team; Mother. Maria, Hamburg (M-class), and Frankfurt (M-class) formed the 2nd Missile Squadron; Kaiser Wilhelm, HMS Hanover (M-class), and USS Danzig (M-class) formed the 3rd Missile Squadron; Vienna (SP-class cruisers), Z38, Z39, T61 (1940 mineset), T62, T63 formed the 4th Lightning Strike Squadron; Prague (SP class), Z40, Z41, T64, T65, T66 formed the 5th Lightning Strike Team; Riga (SP class), Z42, Z43, T67, T68, and T69 form the 6th Lightning Strike Team. ”

Because the 5th Fleet had also divided its forces before, turning some of the more obsolete cruisers, destroyers, and mine-strike ships, as well as 3 escort aircraft carriers with a slower speed, into an escort detachment, escorting the landing fleet and walking slowly behind the main fleet.

And the main force in the hands of Admiral Kars is 3 P-class ships, 6 M-class cruisers, 3 SP-class cruisers, 6 destroyers of the 1936 or 1938 type, and 9 light warships 1 known as lightning strike ships.

The German "lightning strike ship" is not the same as the Japanese "lightning strike ship", the Japanese navy is very obsessed with torpedo attacks by surface ships, especially long-range lightning strikes, so it will equip light cruisers with torpedoes in large quantities and turn them into so-called heavy mine strike ships. The German mine-strike ship is actually an enlarged torpedo boat, with a general displacement of around 1,000 tons, equipped with 105mm naval guns and two triple or quadruple torpedo tubes.

And the 9 mine-striking ships in the hands of Admiral Kars are the behemoths of the mine-striking ships, the 1940 model. Construction of this mine-striking ship began in 1940 at a shipyard in the Netherlands, with a total of 12 ships with a standard displacement of up to 1931 tons, with 4 127mm high-level dual-purpose guns and 4 twin 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns, as well as 2 quadruple 533mm torpedo tubes. A recent modification also fitted the 12 1940 models with sonar-equipped depth charges and hedgehog shells, which are not very different from destroyers.

Now that there are lightning strike ships, the German Navy naturally has the same night lightning strike tactics as the Japanese Navy. However, the Germans did not have the Type 93 spear torpedo that could hit 40,000 meters (36 knots) like the Japanese, not because they had not introduced it, but the German Navy felt that it was not safe, and they preferred to use the safe and reliable but short-range T1 torpedo, and handed over the long-range targets to the V1/V3 wire-controlled missile.

The V1/V3 wire-controlled missile, a new weapon, is now in the hands of the German Navy, and it is also regarded as a torpedo-like weapon, and even the methods and formations used are similar.

……

"Commander, the radar finds the target, 171 degrees, 174 degrees, 176 degrees, 180 degrees, 183 degrees, 185 degrees...... At least 6 detachments are rapidly approaching us. ”

6 detachments? Is this going to be struck by lightning? Admiral Tovey and the new chief of staff of the Home Fleet, Rear Admiral Mountbatten, who came from the royal family and whose great-grandmother was Queen Victoria, glanced at each other. It's all a little strange, didn't the Germans have 3 battle cruisers? How come it is a lightning strike tactic?

"What's the distance?" Mountbatten asked.

"Between 33,000-36,000 yards."

"Admiral, one of the 6 detachments should be an artillery detachment." Mountbatten said to Tovey, "According to intelligence, the Germans had a very weak but fast battlecruiser of the first class, and we may be the ones we are encountering now."

I think the Germans probably divided the fleet into 5 mine-strike columns and 1 shell-strike column. The shelling column opened fire at a distance of 25,000 yards (22,860 meters) to cover the charge of the lightning detachment, while their reconnaissance aircraft dropped flares and bombs, and perhaps wire-controlled glide bombs. In addition, the Germans did not have the strength to go head-to-head with us, and it is likely that they would use high-speed escape after firing torpedoes and wire-controlled bombs. ”

Without the wire-controlled V3 missile, which is a secret weapon, Mountbatten's analysis would be basically correct. Admiral Kars, who had only 3 P-class armored ships, simply did not have the strength to go head-to-head with the 7 battleships of the British Home Fleet, and using high-speed penetration to launch torpedoes and then retreat at high speed was probably the only possible tactic.

"So I propose to adopt the same detachment tactics, with the Hawkins, Caledon, the Affrilititians, the Ashantis, the Bedouins, the Eskimos, the Gurkhas, and the Maori," Mountbatten said. The 3rd Wheel Patrol was the Infuham, Galati, Somalis, Punjabi, Mashaona, Nubian, Mohawk, and Sikh; The 4th Wheel Patrol was the USS Cornwall, USS Cassander, HMS Lafore, HMS Lance, HMS Lae, USS Legion, USS Lightning, and USS Lively; The 5th Wheel Patrol was the Cavendish Corporation, the Karaddock, the Onslow, the Offa, the Assault, the Promotion, the Tiger Greil, and the Gazelle; The 6th Wheel Patrol was formed by the USS Suffolk, HMS Queen of Egypt, HMS Kirdrington, USS Acasta, USS Acraton, USS Acraton, USS Akeron, USS Positive, and USS Antelope; The 7th Wheel Patrol was formed by the Berwick, Caledon, Keith, Pterodactyl, Blanche, Boudicca, and Shuofeng; Then the rest of the combat ships will form the 1st main team. ”

Mountbatten's plan was very simple, didn't the Germans split into 6 teams? Well, our home fleet has a lot of ships, so it is divided into 7 teams, 6 of which are drive patrol teams, consisting of 1 heavy cruiser, 1 light cruiser and 6 destroyers, to meet the 6 teams of the Germans, so as not to let the German lightning strike formation get close to the mines. And 7 battleships plus another 10 light cruisers or destroyers, forming the 1st squadron, hid behind and shelled.

……

"Commander, the British are also in detachment, 7 detachments, one of them is cruising in the rear, and the other 6 are coming at us."

Now that the distance between the two sides is less than 30,000 meters, the detachments of the British fleet naturally cannot evade the detection of the German shipborne radar and the FW-200C radar in the air.

"Commander, 1 detachment is coming at us, it's fast!"

"Commander, it should be a patrol detachment here." The Chief of Staff of the 5th Fleet, Colonel Wagner, immediately knew what the British wanted to do without even thinking about it. "There must be a heavy cruiser in this detachment, and we can just use a 280mm cannon against it!"

The current P-class missile cruisers were originally armored ships and were originally intended to deal with British heavy cruisers. The firepower of the 6 280mm guns is theoretically stronger than that of any British heavy cruiser, and the speed of the P-class ship at 34 knots is not slower than that of a heavy cruiser, which is definitely a heavy killer!

"No, with V3 missiles!" Admiral Kars shook his head, "I can't risk losing a missile cruiser!" ”

"Gun officer, V3 missile launch ready!" The captain of the Frederick I heard the order from Admiral Kars and immediately began to arrange for the launch of the V3 missile.

The P-class ships, like most German battleships, were typical of large ships with small guns and wasted tonnage. However, this kind of shooting is convenient for the P-class ships to install the V3 missile launch system, because the P-class ships are very long, 223 meters, and the main guns are few, so there is a very spacious seaplane deck between the two chimneys in the amidships.

After taking the seaplane, two V3 missile catapults were installed in the same place, and an ammunition depot was built below the V3 missile deck (which was the original seaplane deck) to hold 12 V3 missiles. The V3 Island bombs in the ammunition depot can be lifted and placed on catapults using the two cranes that originally lifted the seaplane.

And the whole process of operation is very slow and dangerous, and once it is hit by the enemy ship's guns, the missile placed on the catapult can cause a catastrophe. Therefore, the P-class missile cruiser adopted the tactic of "one hit and leave", that is, approaching at high speed, and then firing two V3s at the same time, and then quickly disengaged after the V3s hit or missed, and reloaded in a safe area away from enemy fire. (To be continued.) )