The fleet had already entered the Arctic Circle before sailing out of the White Sea, and the fleet enjoyed a period of 24 hours of daylight in the Barents Sea, which was extremely advantageous for Kuznetsov, which had an aircraft carrier, as its own reconnaissance planes should be able to gain sufficient initiative for itself. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

According to the captains of the two carriers, the combined strength of 72 dive bombers and torpedo planes could send the German fleet into the icy Barents Sea – Kuznetsov, who had been subjected to a "heavy bombardment" by his deputy commander a few years earlier, knew that this was not a lie, when the cruiser "Red Caucasus", of which he was the captain, was bombed "horribly".

In a few years, he went from a captain to the commander of the Northern Fleet, the strongest in the Red Navy, and the Red Navy has also increased in strength in the past few years - the fleet he now commands is the best proof of this.

Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov clearly underestimated himself - if it were not for the early pacification of the "purge", he would have been the commander-in-chief of the Red Navy!

But God in charge of the weather in the Arctic Ocean did not seem to give the Red Navy a chance to gain an advantage, and the sea conditions got worse and worse in three hours: it is not to blame for the incompetence of the meteorological services, as the Barents Sea in summer can sometimes be so difficult to fathom! Although there was no problem with ships of the destroyer class and above, the carriers reported that they would not be able to take off in such sea conditions - the six reconnaissance torpedo planes sent out were already in conditions beyond the deck operation by the time they returned to the sky over the formation - but they were not allowed to land, and a forced landing on the Barents Sea would be a death: the icy sea would kill the pilot in a matter of minutes!

Not only will the aircraft carrier sway horizontally, but the longitudinal fluctuations will also exceed the worst bottom line for a safe landing - the six pilots and six (two-seater torpedo plane) weapons operators on the six planes are the most skilled veterans, and the thrilling landing scene that makes everyone's hearts hang in front of the eyes of the aircraft carrier crew is before the eyes of the aircraft carrier's crew.

In the end, under the dual influence of technology and luck, only one plane of the "Kirov" broke the left wing landing gear, and the pilot was lucky, the plane did not catch fire and did not rush out of the flight deck, but the person was slightly injured and the plane needed major repairs!

It is not to blame the pilot for such an accident, at least it can be regarded as saving his life and the aircraft, and did not cause temporary irreparable damage to the mothership - two arresting cables need to be replaced.

The reconnaissance plane did not find any targets on the water, but the No. 2 reconnaissance plane encountered the German patrol plane from a distance - such a situation did not mean much to the fleet: for several days the front sea area had already been occupied by patrol planes from both sides.

Murmansk did not give any specific movements of the German fleet, and the submarines did not find anything - except for one that was strafed by German planes, and fortunately the Germans had average depth charge throwing techniques.

"Commander, your coffee." The orderlies brought coffee to the commanders in the armored control tower, and the coffee sets were all fine Leningrad porcelain - as the flagship of the Red Navy, the "Soviet" not only had a full set of flagship facilities like its sister ships, but all the details were the best! Of course, without learning the glitz of the Turks, the flammable wooden parapets everywhere, everything seemed to be down-to-earth and generous, meeting all the requirements of the naval flagships of the great powers.

"I always felt something was wrong, the Germans were somewhere ahead of us, but we just couldn't find them." Without looking at charts or desktop assignments combined with various parameter calculations, Kuznetsov can clearly appear in his mind a chart with various data.

"Comrade commander, the Germans don't have aircraft carriers, and this damn weather makes it impossible for us to conduct effective aerial reconnaissance at all, so we don't know when it will clear up on this day."

Listening to the words of the chief of staff, Kuznetsov's face was as serious as ever: now he is faced with a problem, and that is the formation of his own fleet!

At present, the battleship formation and the aircraft carrier formation have become a whole, and the standard ring air defense arrangement is in order to protect against possible German bombers. However, looking at the weather, it is estimated that it is impossible for its own aircraft carrier to send planes, and even its own and German land-based planes will return to the airfield - patrol flights in such an environment are not only dangerous but also cannot play an effective role, let alone attack.

Visibility is getting worse and worse, and radar can detect opponents at the maximum combat distance of artillery, but that also means that the Germans are just as far away as they are - according to the situation and intelligence analysis of the naval battle in the Danish Strait, German capital ships should also be equipped with well-equipped radars. If both sides find their opponents at the same time, it becomes very important to occupy a position: if this happens, their current formation will suffer greatly, and the Germans will have the advantage, and the two aircraft carriers behind will become the biggest burden!

Why Kuznetsov has such a concern: because the battleship fleet usually moves in columns, and this formation is relatively more mobile. Since the fleets of both sides are traveling at high speed, the ideal situation is that the column formed by the enemy is exactly across the path of the opposing fleet, forming a T-shape (the position of the own fleet is located in the T-shaped position), so that all the front and rear guns of the enemy and all the secondary guns on one side are fired at the opponent, and the opponent can only return fire with the front main guns of the ships at the front of the column. But a large part of the plan to form a T-shape is a matter of luck: since both sides are already moving at high speed, it is likely that they will not be able to get the timing right, and they will go from being a T-shaped horizontal to a vertical one, and thus being passively beaten.

The current situation is that one's fleet is like an oval net, and once it encounters an opponent, it will be difficult to quickly form a column formation and form an effective dense firepower.

"What if you were the commander of the German fleet and what would you do if you met us?" Kuznetsov asked his own chief of staff, Rear Admiral Golovko.

"Do everything you can to get close to us and engage in an artillery battle!" The chief of staff already somewhat understood the commander's thoughts.

"Commander, we can only participate in the queue of four ships, and the firepower of the cruiser is equal to that of the German Prinz Eugen."

Kuznetsov knew the chief of staff's concerns: although he had three cruisers on hand, only the new heavy cruisers "Maxim-Gorky" and "Molotov" could participate in the artillery battle, each of which had nine 180-mm guns, while the "Red Caucasus" under his command had only four single-mounted 180-mm guns, which were not suitable for participating in the fleet artillery battle.

Intelligence said that the German "Prinz Eugen" had four twin mounts with a total of 8 203 mm guns, and the most terrifying thing was that it was the most powerful 203 mm naval gun in the world, and it could even penetrate the armor belt of British battleships at a relatively close range (this is not bragging, the armor-piercing ability of this German 203 mm naval gun is amazing. It is equivalent to that the two German battleships had a reliable helper, and the helper armor was quite thick, and it was not known whether the main gun shells of their cruisers could cause structural damage to the "Prinz Eugen".

Of course, the firepower of the cruiser is nothing more than a supporting role for the artillery battle of the battleship column, and the protagonist is still the powerful battleships of both sides.

"Order the fleet to form two columns, the destroyers to the left flank, the USSR, the Red Ukraine, the Gorky, and the Molotov to form an artillery column, let the two aircraft carriers follow, let the Russian in front, and let the Caucasus be at the end of the queue."

This order is very clear, the entire formation will be greatly adjusted, once the opponent is detected, the artillery column can maneuver freely, and the aircraft carrier can withdraw at any time, and can also flexibly use the six high-speed destroyers - at a critical moment, you can release smoke to cover your own formation or launch a "suicidal" torpedo attack to disrupt the opponent's formation.

At 21 o'clock in the evening, the sky was overcast and the sea breeze and waves had driven away the fog, but the visibility in the Arctic daylight was so average that even from the lookout post at the top of the control tower could not see beyond ten nautical miles.

"Comrade Commander, the radar room reported the discovery of unidentified targets, which should be three ships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons and several destroyers, with a speed of 16 knots, a course of 170, and a distance of 23 nautical miles."

"Combat alert, inform the shelling formations to prepare for an artillery duel with the German battleships! Let the aircraft carrier and the Red Caucasus withdraw to the southeast. The shelling column and destroyer formations accelerated to 25 knots! ”

The British will not run to the Barents Sea, it can only be a German battleship formation! The terrible battle alarm sounded inside the ship, and the watertight doors of each ship were closed urgently, and each post was in place!

The German ship is heading for 170, which is almost straight towards its own formation! "Heading to 080!"

The hull of the ship is slightly tilted, the steam turbine emits powerful power, and everyone can feel a slight vibration in the hull - it is accelerating!

By order of the commander of the gun, armor-piercing shells weighing 1180 kg were pushed into the chamber located at an angle of 6 degrees. The 310-kilogram ******, divided into several packets, was then also pushed into the huge chamber, the bolt of the screw was tightened, and the cannon began to raise the elevation angle.

At this time, the radar room reported that the German formations were also turning, and both sides wanted to seize the T-shape, depending on the level and luck of the commanders of their respective fleets next!

"Concentrate the battleship firepower and hit the German battleship in the lead." After this order was issued, the command of the artillery battle was temporarily handed over to the commander of the "Soviet" - "close to 36000 meters for the first salvo!" ”

You can't see that far from the sea, and you can rely on radar positioning alone - it is estimated that the Germans will do the same: the maximum range of the main guns of the "Soviet" class reached 45,670 meters, but to conduct an artillery battle at that distance is simply a waste of shells! (To be continued.) )